UsCountriesCHAOS
by CrazyFangirlOfLots
Summary: Love, hate, & a whole lot of HUMOR is what this story is! 5 friends from our world get transported into the anime world of Hetalia. THIS IS NO FANGIRL INTO WORLD FIC! These girls have no idea of what Hetalia is, so they wont be fangirling over them...but there will be fangirling over other stuff.
1. Imagine if

Imagine if everything was going well. Life was good and your future was bright. Then, some mysterious force flips your life upside down, says, "Suck it loser!" and you land flat on your face. Your life has been completely turned around and you have no idea of what to do. This new life contradicts everything you thought you knew and you are completely unprepared and so confused.

... And yet...somehow...it's better.

That's what happened to me.

To us.

To all of us.

It all began on a normal Friday night. I was going to a sleepover with my not-so-normal friends. We're the oddballs, the nerds, the goody-two-shoes, the dorks, the crazies. Most definitely the crazies. But we embrace the titles. Why not be crazy and enjoy life?

Anyway, the party was at Safira's because she lived out in the boonies, where there was enough room for us all and we could be as loud as we dang well pleased.

When I got there, I was greeted at the door by Safira myself. She's only a little shorter than me, with long, strait light brown hair and green-blue eyes. She was wearing jeans, a T-shirt with penguins on it and her colorful socks were mismatched (a common thing among my friends, while I myself prefer to go barefoot). She was also wearing the super fuzzy panda hat with paws that I'd given her for her Sweet 16. She is the quietest of us, even though I've seen her cut loose when just with us, and she is arguably the least crazy of our group.

"Adaliz!" she smiled and gave me a fuzzy hug.

"Hi Safi!" I smiled as I hugged back.

"How are you?" She asked as she let me in.

"Great!" I replied as I took off my jacket and shoes. "I'm super excited for tonight!"

"Good! Alexandra and Marina are already here. We're still waiting on Zara."

"Oh no, she didn't get in trouble with her parents again, did she?"

"Nope, she's just late."

"Good. ALEX! MARI! GET YOUR BUTTS UP HERE SO I CAN HUG YOU!"

"COME DOWN HERE AND LISTEN TO ONE DIRECTION!" Alex screamed back.

"I DON'T WANNA LISTEN TO THOSE-"

"Don't you dare," Safi threatened from beside me. Dang it.

"Yes Mom," I muttered as I walked downstairs.

"If you call me that again I'm gonna make you stand in the corner!"

I blew a raspberry up at her and then laughed as ran the rest of the way downstairs, Safi close behind me.

"Hi guyz!" I yelled as I launched myself into the air and bellyflopped onto the wide couch of Safi's that I love so much and landed to Alex's right.

Alexandra is about Safi's height with long, strait brown hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a Justice Crew T-shirt with jeans and she had a gummy worm hanging out the side of her smirk. She was holding up her smartphone for Mari to see the video, one leg crossed over the other.

Marina was at Alex's left side. She's the tallest of us shorties, about two or three inches tall than me. She has long, curly brown hair clipped back on one side with green eyes. She had on one of her trademark key necklaces, a Harry potter T-shirt, jeans and a small, handmade chapstick holder clipped to her belt loop. She had a smile on her face, but then again, she always did.

"Hey Lees!" they said as they gave me attempted hugs from my spot next to them.

"How's it goin'?" I said sitting up.

"Pretty good!" Alex replied, tossing her head up so that the rest the gummy worm fell into her mouth. "One D?" she asked as she offered her phone for me to see, still chewing. Luckily, I speak food.

"Is it the song that sound like a-"

"No! It's Heart Attack."

"Oh fine." I said, adjusting myself to see the screen. Safi came over too and sat next to Mari. We listened to the rest of the song, singing along to the five British boys-oh, excuse me, four British and one Scottish boys-until the song ended. I didn't really mind 1D, they were actually pretty good, but I didn't fangirl all over them like some of my friends. I thought they should rap and breakdance more, and turn up the bass.

_Baby, you got me sick,/I don't know what I did,/Need to take a break and figure it out, yeah,/Got your voice in my head,/Sayin' "Let's just be friends,"/Can't believe the words came out of your mouth, yeah_

I'm tryna be okay,/I'm tryna be alright,/But seein' you with him,/Just don't feel right

And I'm like (ow!) never thought it'd hurt so bad/Gettin' over you-ooh,/And (ow!) you're givin' me a heart attack/Lookin' like you do-ooh,/'Cause you're all I ever wanted,/Thought you would be the one/It's (ow!) givin' me a heart attack,/Gettin' over you-ooh-ooh-ooh,

Yeah,/Baby now that you're gone,/I can't stand dumb love songs,/Missing you is all I'm thinking about, yeah/Everyone's tellin' me,/I'm just too blind to see,/How you messed me up, I'm better off now, yeah

I'm tryna be okay,/I'm tryna be alright,/But seein' you with him,/Just don't feel right

And I'm like (ow!) never thought it'd hurt so bad/Gettin' over you-ooh,/And (ow!) you're givin' me a heart attack/Lookin' like you do-ooh,/'Cause you're all I ever wanted,/Thought you would be the one/It's (ow!) givin' me a heart attack,/Gettin' over you-ooh-ooh-ooh,

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,/Ow!/Oh, oh oh, oh, oh, oh/Yeah, every time you look like that,/Ow!/Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh  
Ow!/Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh/You're givin' me a heart attack

But seeing you with him,/Just don't feel right

And I'm like (ow!) never thought it'd hurt so bad/Gettin' over you-ooh,/And (ow!) you're givin' me a heart attack/Lookin' like you do-ooh,/'Cause you're all I ever wanted,/Thought you would be the one/It's (ow!) givin' me a heart attack,/Gettin' over you-ooh-ooh-ooh,

You,/Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh/You're all I ever wanted,/Ow/Yeah, every time you look like that,/Ow/Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh/Come on, you're all I ever wanted/Ow/Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh/You're giving me a heart attack,/Ow!

Not a second after the song ended, we heard a door slam open upstairs.

"ZARA IS IN THE HIZ-OUSE!" The squad was completed. The craziest of us had arrived. Safi started to get up to help Zara in like a good hostess but the next thing we knew Zara had leaped down the stairs, spun around and launched herself at us. She landed in the middle of us, creating a heap of crazy girls.

"Zara!" we all complained.

"Hey guys!" she said happily, as if the rest of us had not just been crushed. I couldn't exactly glomp her, (as was customary between us, usually I'd have to hold her up though because she has terrible balance), since she was laying down, so I did the next back thing. I grabbed her around the middle and tackled her to the floor and off of the rest of our friends.

"'Sup Zee?" I asked as I stood up.

"The stratosphere." she said from her spot on the floor. She's a tiny thing at only an inch above five feet, and she has long, dyed black hair with purple highlights and brown eyes that changed shades. She was wearing a One Direction T-shirt and jeans.

"Hardeeharhar," I said as I helped her up. "We're watching One Dee, you in?"

"Am I in? Seriously?" She asked sarcastically as she got up and took my seat beside Alex. I shrugged and sat next to her. Mari, Alex, Safi, Zara and I sung to the song, Rock Me.

_Do you remember summer '09?/Wanna go back there every night,/Just can't lie, was the best time of my life,/Lying on the beach as the sun blew out,/Playing this guitar by the fire too loud,/Oh my, my, they could never shut us down_

I used to think that I was better alone,/Why did I ever wanna let you go?/Under the moonlight as we stared at the sea,/The words you whispered I will always believe

I want you to rock me, rock me, rock me, yeah,/I want you to rock me, rock me, rock me, yeah,/I want you to hit the pedal, heavy metal, show me you care/I want you to rock me, rock me, rock me, yeah

We were together summer '09,/Wanna roll back like pressing rewind,/You were mine and we never said goodbye

I used to think that I was better alone (better alone),/Why did I ever wanna let you go? (let you go),/Under the moonlight as we stared at the sea (stared at the sea),/The words you whispered I will always believe

I want you to rock me, rock me, rock me, yeah/I want you to rock me, rock me, rock me, yeah/I want you to hit the pedal, heavy metal, show me you care/I want you to rock me, rock me, rock me, yeah

R-O-C-K me again,/R-O-C-K me again,/R-O-C-K me again, yeah/I want you to R-O-C-K me again,/R-O-C-K me again,/R-O-C-K me again, yeah

I want you to rock me, rock me, rock me, yeah/I want you to rock me, rock me, rock me, yeah/I want you to hit the pedal, heavy metal, show me you care/I want you to rock me, rock me, rock me, yeah

I want you to rock me, rock me, rock me, yeah/I want you to rock me, rock me, rock me, yeah/I want you to hit the pedal, heavy metal, show me you care/I want you to rock me, rock me, rock me, yeah

"Oh, I forgot to tell you guys," Safi said when the song was over. "I have one more guest here tonight.

"Who?" Safi asked.

"Haily."

"HAILY?!"

I smiled. I love Haily.

"But she's crazy!" Mari protested.

"Yeah she makes Zara look like a Zen master!" Alex added.

"Ommmmm," Zara said for effect.

"I know," Safi sighed. "But it's only for the night. I've just been watching her while my parents were on vacation. They're coming over to pick her up tomorrow."

"Well that's a relief," Alex said.

Safi stood up. "I'm going to go get her now," she said. "She can't stay in that room all night."

"Okay," we all said. We watched Safi go up the stairs. Nothing was said as we listened to the sound of Safi's footsteps upstairs. Then the footsteps stopped.

"You guys ready?" Safi yelled down to us.

The rest of us huddled close together on the couch. I was still smiling. "Ready!" We yelled back.

Then we heard the sound of a door opening.

Safi had unleashed the monster.

A loud, fast thumping of feet came to our ears. The thumping ran across the house with incredible speed, and then it practically flew down the stairs. We huddled closer together and I closed my eyes as the thumping turned to skidding across the hardwood floor.

The monster had arrived.

I opened my eyes just in time to see a blur of strawberry blonde came straight at us.

WOOF

"HAILY!" Everyone complained to the golden retriever that had jumped on top of us.

I laughed. "Haily!" I exclaimed. Haily responded by jumping on top of me. I laughed harder as she covered me in doggy kisses, trying to keep my mouth out of her reach. I love dogs and I don't mind being slobbered on as long as none of it gets in my mouth. I'm not one of those crazy people who like it when dogs lick inside my mouth. I'd hadn't had a dog since I was 13, and she'd been a very nervous dog and she often bit us, so we gave her away. I'd never been able to have a real dog, so I loved every chance I got to be around one.

Haily jumped off me and tried to give the same treatment to my friends, but they had all grown up with crazy dogs, so they weren't as pleased as I was.

"Haily! Heel!" Safi came down and commanded, to no effect. "HAILY! HEEL!"

Eventually, Haily had calmed down to laying down beside the couch, quivering with excitement.

Wiping the slobber off my face, I beamed and said, "Hey Safi! Can we play hide and seek Haily? Please pretty please?"

"Hey that sounds like fun!" Zara said and Mari and Alex agreed, both beginning to grin giddily.

Safi smiled and nodded. "Okay, that's a good way to start off the party" she said.

"YES!" Zara and I exclaimed and high-fived. "Me first!" Zara yelled as she ran up the stairs.

Haily was about to run after her, but Safi was able to catch her by the collar before she could go anywhere. "You have one minute!" she called after Zara.

One minute later, and we were all grinning like madwomen. Safi looked up at us. "Should we let her have it?" she asked.

We looked at each other and started to count down loud enough for Zara to hear us, wherever she was. "Three! Two! One! GO!" We yelled and Safi let go of Haily's collar.

"Haily! Go find Zara!" Safi ordered.

Haily took off like a rocket. She zoomed up the stairs and the rest of us ran after her. She got to Zara before the rest of us did.

"AAIE!" We heard a scream from ahead. "Haily get off! No! Ahahahahaha! Eek! Guys come help me!"

We all laughed and rounded the corner to see the tip of Haily's wagging tail in the bathroom door. We ran in and saw that Zara had curled herself into a small cabinet under the sink and had closed the doors. Somehow, Haily had managed to nose the door open and now Zara was cornered and being loved to death.

Safi pulled Haily off of Zara, who managed to uncurl herself from the ball she was in and crawl out of the cabinet. "That was the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me," she said, wiping some slobber off her face.

I giggled. "My turn!" I said as I ran back downstairs. Reaching the bottom, I looked around. I knew that I had only one minute to hide, so I had to make my hiding place a good one. That would be hard, since small, dark spaces are the best hiding spots, and I'm not too fond of small, dark spaces. I glanced down at my feet. I actually had socks on, for once. Then I got an idea. I took off my socks-phew! Did they stink! Yep, this would defiantly do the trick. So I dragged the socks along the ground until I came to the bookshelf and stuffed them in a small corner.

"Three! Two! One! GO! Haily! Go find Alaliz!" I heard from upstairs. Out of time, I quickly ran to the back of the living room and hid behind the couch. I didn't have time to come up with a better idea.

Not a second later, Haily came pounding down the stairs. Just as I had hoped, she ran right over to where I'd put my socks and my friends followed.

"No! NO! Haily drop it!" I heard Safi say.

"Adaliz! Haily's got your socks!" I heard Mari yell.

Oh great! I shot out from behind the couch just in time to see Safi rip my socks from Haily's mouth. I walked over and took them from Safi's hands. They were nothing but torn, wet rags now. I giggled. "That's what I get for trying to cheat!" I said as I tossed what once were socks into the garbage.

"I've got some extra socks if you want them, Lees," Mari offered.

I looked up and smiled at her. "Don't worry," I said. "I usually go sockless anyway!"

We played three more times. Alex hid in the shower, Mari hid in a large pile of stuffed animals, and Safi hid under her bed. Haily found all of us every time. After the game was over, we put Haily outside for some exercise.

"Well," Mari said, still smiling. "What should we do now?"

"I know!" Safi exclaimed and in a burst on energy only seen at our parties she ran out of the room. I smiled, happy to see Safi cut loose.

Soon, we heard the scrape of wood against wood, and then we saw Safi dragging out a wooden limbo set.

"Limbo!" Zara screamed, ran up to Safi and before we could stop her, she stole the limbo stick and ran around the room waving it in the air.

"ZARA HAS A STICK!" Alex sounded the alarm and Mari, Safi and I tackled her to the ground.

"My sticky! Mine!" Zara yelled as we tried to take the stick from her, being careful of her teeth. Zara bites.

"Zara let go or I won't let you have any brownies!" Mari threatened.

"Letting go!" Zara said and suddenly let go of the stick, sending the rest of us flying backwards.

"Zara," Safi sighed from her spot on the floor. "Be a good girl and go plug this into the stereo." She held up her phone for Zara, knowing better than to toss something to her.

"Okay!" Zara exclaimed as she jumped up and took the phone from Safi's hands. As the rest of us picked ourselves off the floor and set up the limbo set on the carpet, Zara looked through Safi's song list and found Limbo Rock.

Somehow, I'd ended up at the front of the limbo line. I am the least flexible girl on the planet. I can't touch my toes even though I'm fairly skinny, but at least it was just me and my friends. It was pretty much impossible for me to feel embarrassed when with my friends.

"You guys had better not step on my face when I fall, "I joked and my friends laughed. Then I looked at the relatively high bar in front of me. _Ima kill this stick!_ I told myself with a smirk.

"Okay guys!" Zara said, finger poised above the play button. "You ready?"

"Yeah!"

"Let's go!" Zara exclaimed, pressing the button.

_Every limbo boy and girl/All around the limbo world/Gonna do the limbo rock/All around the limbo clock/Jack be limbo, Jack be quick/Jack go unda limbo stick_

As the music started, I bent backwards to make it under the stick. The rest of my friends followed, Zara hardly having to duck at all.

_All around the limbo clock/Hey, let's do the limbo rock_

_Limbo lower now/Limbo lower now/How low can you go_

_First you spread your limbo feet/Then you move to limbo beat/Limbo ankolimboneee,/Bend back like a limbo tree/Jack be limbo, Jack be quick/Jack go unda limbo stick/All around the limbo clock/Hey, let's do the limbo rock_

_la la la etc (instead of instrumental break)_

We went around a few more times, moving the bar lower with each round. It wasn't long before the bar had reached a height at which I wasn't sure if I could make it under. I eyed the bar distastefully, but then I began to bend over backwards. I knew that my balance wasn't very good; it was almost as bad as Zara's! I had a reputation for being clumsy, but then again, all of us did. So when I reached a height at which I might, _might_ be able to make it under, I stepped forward. I kept going until the stick was right under my nose. Then I started to tip.

"WoaAAH!" I yelled as my arms flailed out to the sides in a desperate yet futile attempt to maintain balance. When my toes lifted off the ground, my back stopped arching and I landed on my rump.

My friends started laughing as so did I. It was funny! I must've looked like a cartoon with my arms going everywhere! I got up from my spot on the floor , stood next to the limbo stick, flipped back non-existent dreads, and said "Keep da game goin', mahn!" in a Jamaican accent. My friends laughed and as they continued limboing I continued singing the song in a Jamaican accent, humming when I didn't know the lyrics.

_Get yourself a limbo girl/Give that chic a limbo whirl/There's a limbo moon above/You will fall in limbo love/Jack be limbo, Jack be quick/Jack go unda limbo stick/All around the limbo clock/Hey, let's do the limbo rock_

Eventually only Zara and Safi were left; Zara because she's so small, and Safi because she's extremely flexible. The bar was ridiculously low, and Zara lived up to her unbalanced reputation and didn't make it under. Safi stood looking at the stick.

"Come on Safira! You can do it!" we cheered.

Safi looked at us and smiled. Then she calmly took off her panda hat with paws and set it down to her left. Then she lifted her hands over her head and she bent back…and back…and back until her palms were on the floor. In this bridge shape, she proceeded to sort of scuttle under the stick. One she had passed, she erected herself, beaming.

_Don't move that limbo bar/You'll be a limbo star/How low can you go_

"Woo hoo! Go Safi!" we cheered again as we all gave her hugs.

"As winner of the limbo contest," Safi said, placing her panda hat on her head like a winner's crown. "and hostess of this party, I declare that we shall have a dance party to celebrate!"

"YAY!" We all yelled and made a dash for the stereo. Alex got there first and plugged in her phone. She immediately turned on Justice Crew's "Boom Boom", to which none of us protested. She proceeded to teach us the moves she knew from the chorus, which included moves which we would never do in public.

_Boom boom/(It's getting hot in here)/Boom boom/(It's getting hot in here)/Boom boom/(It's getting hot in here)_

Woo!

Okay, the gang's all here/And everything feels alright/Ladies, the drinks on me/Yeah, we can do shots all night/That's right, I'm on that s***/(I'm on it)/And it's about to go go down/All night, we ain't gon' quit/And all I need is a few more chicks/(Let's go)

Yeah, ladies we drop it/So no man is hot in it/And we got money/To blow oh oh/The party is rockin'/The whole crew is poppin'/We own this, we got this/Let's go oh oh

Callin' all sexy girls/All around the world/Look at that aeroplane fly/Up on cloud nine/D*** you so sexy ooh/And the things you do/Drive me out of my mi-mi-mind/And the party goes boom boom boom

New York to Cali/London, Miami/Them girls be slammin'/And the party goes boom boom boom/Rio, Dubai/Moscow, Mumbai/So sexy fly/'Cause the party goes boom boom boom

D*** girl you were ten, oh my/And you keep looking at me/No wings, but you still fly/If you got a man tell him bye bye bye

Yeah, ladies we drop it/So no man is hot in it/And we got money/To blow oh oh/The party is rockin'/The whole crew is poppin'/We own this, we got this/Let's go oh oh

Callin' all sexy girls/All around the world/Look at that aeroplane fly/Up on cloud nine/D*** you so sexy ooh/And the things you do/Drive me out of my mi-mi-mind/And the party goes boom boom boom

New York to Cali/London, Miami/Them girls be slammin'/And the party goes boom boom boom/Rio, Dubai/Moscow, Mumbai/So sexy fly/'Cause the party goes boom boom boom

Boom boom/(It's getting hot in here)/Boom boom/(It's getting hot in here)/Boom boom/(It's getting hot in here)/Boom boom/'Cause the party goes boom boom boom/Boom boom/(It's getting hot in here)/Boom boom/(It's getting hot in here)/Boom boom/(It's getting hot in here)/Boom boom/Yeeeeaaahhh

Callin' all sexy girls/All around the world/Look at that aeroplane fly/Up on cloud nine/D*** you so sexy ooh/And the things you do/Drive me out of my mi-mi-mind/And the party goes boom boom boom

New York to Cali/London, Miami/Them girls be slammin'/And the party goes boom boom boom (yeah)/Rio, Dubai/Moscow, Mumbai/So sexy fly/'Cause the party goes boom boom boom

New York to Cali/(Boom Boom)/London, Miami/(Boom Boom)/Them girls be slammin'/(Boom Boom)/And the party goes boom boom boom boom/Rio, Dubai/(Boom Boom)/Moscow Mumbai/(Boom Boom)/So sexy fly/'Cause the party goes boom boom boom

I am such a bad dancer, but I love to dance! Thankfully embarrassment among my friends and I is virtually nonexistent, so I didn't have to hold back. After some more songs, we eventually became exhausted and we decided that maybe we should change into our pj's and order pizza.

When it was my turn to go into the bathroom to change, I quickly put on a huge blue T-shirt and my fuzzy cow pajama pants. I took a quick glance at the mirror. I'm around 5'4" with maple syrup brown eyes. My hair was a brushed forward pixie cut that had been dyed a bright blue, but was starting to fade away and you could see my dirty blond hair color at the roots. I smiled at how messed up my hair was from all that dancing. Just wait until my morning bedhead came…

I walked out of the bathroom just in time to see Alex grab the phone to dial Domino's Pizza. Then I got an idea…

"Alex wait!" I exclaimed as I ran up to her. "Guys!" I called and beckoned everyone closer. "I've got an idea, but first, Alex, let me use your phone," When she handed it to me, I used it to YouTube "Gabriel Iglesias Drive Thru Voice"…

One minute and forty-two seconds later, we were all rolling on the floor laughing. "So do you gys think we should do it?" I asked them between laughs.

"OH MY GOSH YES!" Zara screamed and that sent us into another laughing frenzy.

"Okay then since Alex has the best composure I think that she should do it," I said.

"All right!" Alex fist pumped and then dialed.

"Everyone be quiet!" Mari giggled.

We could just barely hear the person on the other end come on and greet her.

"Hello sir? Hahahahahahaha!" Alex said in a very high, obnoxious voice. "Can I please have three large cheese pizzas and an order of breadsticks? Hahahahaha!" The speaker repeated the order and Alex said, "Oh my gosh yes!"

We all almost fainted trying to keep our laughter in. Alex then proceeded to give our address in the same voice and then hung up. We all rolled around on the floor laughing hysterically for a good five minutes until we could finally talk again.

"Okay Safi," I said. "When the guy comes, you go get the pizzas, okay?"

Safi frowned. She was very shy around strangers and did not enjoy talking to them.

"Don't worry," I said "Only Alex will actually talk." I explained the rest of my plan.

Safi cocked her head to one side, considering this, then she smiled and nodded.

When the pizza man came, a very quiet, shy Safi opened the door. The pizza man looked confused at her silence. "Uh, did you order three large cheese pizzas and an order of breadsticks?" he asked her. She nodded, shyly avoiding eye contact and pointed to the table sitting next to the door. As the pizza man came in we made sure that we were all hidden and that Alex was in place. Once he'd set the pizzas down, he turned to her and said, "Will you be paying in cash?"

That's when Alex popped out from behind the door and said in that same voice, "Oh my gosh yes! Hahahahahahaha!"

The look on that poor guy's face was priceless! We couldn't take it anymore and we fell out of our hiding spots, laughing like crazy.

The poor guy didn't know what to do, and so we paid him and gave him an extra large tip for all the trouble we had caused. We sent him away then, shutting the door before laughing once more and diving into our pizzas.

After we'd finished eating our pizzas, it was decided that we should play Safi's singing game on her gaming system. Mari went up first, and she squealed with delight when she found one of her favorite songs.

_Hey, hey, hey  
_

_Your lipstick stains__On the front lobe of my__/__Left-side brains__/__I knew I wouldn't forget you__/And so I went and let you/Blow my mind  
Your sweet moonbeam __The smell of you in every__Single dream I dream__I knew when we collided__You're the one I have decided__Who's one of my kind__  
_

_Hey soul sister/Ain't that mister mister/On the radio, stereo/__The way you move ain't fair, you know__/Hey soul sister __I don't wanna miss__/__A single thing you do__/__Tonight__  
_

_Hey, hey, hey  
_

_Just in time/__I'm so glad you have__/__A one track mind like me__/You gave my life direction/__A game show love connection__/__We can't deny__ /__I'm so obsessed__/__My heart is bound to beat__/__Right out my untrimmed chest__/I believe in you/Like a virgin, you're Madonna/And I'm always gonna wanna blow your mind  
_

_Hey soul sister/Ain't that mister mister/On the radio, stereo/The way you move ain't fair, you know/Hey soul sister I don't wanna miss/A single thing you do/Tonight  
_

_The way you can cut a rug/__Watching you is the only drug I need__/So gangster, I'm so thug/You're the only one I'm dreaming of /__You see, I can be myself now finally__/__In fact there's nothing I can't be__/__I want the world to see you'll be with me__  
_

_Hey soul sister/Ain't that mister mister/On the radio, stereo/The way you move ain't fair, you know/Hey soul sister I don't wanna miss/A single thing you do/Tonight  
_

_Hey soul sister I don't wanna miss/A single thing you do/Tonight  
_

_Hey, hey, hey/Tonight/Hey, hey, hey/Tonight_

We all clapped and cheered for her when she had finished. She's a really good singer! After her, a few more people sang. When it was Safi's turn, she came across a song on the list that she didn't recognize.

"Hetalia?"

"What the heck is that?"

"I dunno, play the intro."

_Hey hey papa, could I have some wine/Hey hey mama, hey hey mama!? It doesn't matter what I do I'll never forget,/The taste of Bolognese won't get out of my head!_

_Draw a circle, that's the earth! Draw a circle, that's the earth! Draw a circle, that's the earth! I am Hetalia!_

_Ah, the world around us,/Can be seen through the stroke of a single brush,/And now we give a toast with our boots!/Hetalia!_

"Oh great! Another drunk song!"

"Isn't a Bolognese a dog?"

"He means the sauce!"

"Why are they drawing a circle?"

"That's the earth!"

"Why are they toasting with boots?"

"It's an Italian thing."

"It's so weird!"

"It actually sounds kindof fun!"

"Hey it's a five person song!"

"Really? I thought the max was four!"

"Let's all sing! Come on! Let's share the mike!"

"Okay! Here we go!"

_Hey hey papa, could I have some wine!/Hey hey mama, hey hey mama!/It doesn't matter what I do I'll never forget,/The taste of bolognese won't get out of my head!_

_Draw a circle,that's the Earth!/Draw a circle, that's the Earth!/Draw a circle, that's the Earth!/I'm Hetalia!_

_Draw a circle, there's Earth!/Looking closely, there's Earth!/Or maybe it's Earth?/I'm Hetalia!_

_Ah, a fabulous world,/That can be seen with a swipe of a paintbrush,/Let's have a toast with our boots!/Hetalia!_

_("Ah, I'm hungry. I want to eat pasta!")_

_Draw a circle, there's Earth!/Draw a circle, there's Earth!/Draw a circle, there's Earth!/I'm Hetalia!_

_Draw a circle, there's Earth!/Suddenly, there's Earth!/Lie on your back, there's Earth!/I'm Hetalia!_

_Ah, with just some boiling,/A recipe that will make you cry with joy/("The noodles are al dente.")/The zipper of dreams is fully opened!/Hetalia!_

_Hey, hey, fratello, give me pasta!/While you're at it, sorella, please boil it!/Oi, oi, nonno, peace is great/Yes, yes, bambino (is that for me?)/Here, here, papa, give me wine/Hey, hey, mama, hey, hey, mama!/I can't forget the taste,/Of the bolognese I ate before!_

_Hetalia/Hetalia/Useless Hetalia!_

_Draw a circle, there's Earth!/Draw a circle, there's Earth!/Draw a circle, there's Earth!/I'm Hetalia!_

_Ah, a fabulous world,/That can be seen with a swipe of a paintbrush,/Let's have a toast with our boots!/Hetalia!_

_Ah, throughout the world,/Sleeps the recipe of happiness/An exploration with our boots!/Hetalia!_

"AAAAAAAH!" The next thing we knew, we were falling through the air! Then everything went black. When we woke up. Something was very different.

There were eight men staring at us, and Zara screamed:

"OMIGOSH IMA CARTOON!"


	2. OMIGOSH

"OHMIGOSH I'M A CARTOON!" Zara screamed.

"Ugh," I groaned, sore all over. My eyes were closed, but I could feel grass under me. "Zara," I said, rubbing my eyes before opening them, "What are you talking abou-AAH!" I screamed. What I saw in front of me was a life-sized, _living_ anime girl! She had screamed at the same moment I had and we both launched ourselves backwards. The anime girl had green eyes and long, curly brown hair clipped to one side. She looked to be about two or three inches taller than me. We stared at each other for a while, then I finally broke the silence. "… Marina?"

The anime girl blinked at me. "Adaliz?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed and got to my feet. I offered my hand to Mari and she took it.

'What's going on?" she asked as I helped her up.

"Guys?" I heard Alex say. Mari and I turned to see an anime Alexandra helping up an anime Safira.

Just then, a blur of black and purple flew by. "I'M A CARTOON!" an anime Zara screamed as she ran around in circles, scared out of her poor little mind.

"Zara! Come!" Safi called, holding out her arms.

Zara turned on a dime and ran into Safi's arms. The rest of us crowded around them.

"What is going on guys?" Safi asked, her voice risen to a frantic octave that reflected all of our fear.

"I don't know," I said, trying to keep calm and keep my voice from rising also.

"Perhaps we could be of assistance," said a voice from behind us.

We all screamed and whirled around, and since we'd been standing so close together, we got tangled up in each other and we fell into a pile.

"Ow," I moaned, rubbing my head and looking up. What I saw made me gasp.

There were eight young anime men staring at us.

My friends saw them too, and we huddled together in a frightened, confused lump. Zara was gripping onto Safi, still saying "Ohmigosh! Ohmigosh!" Safi was somewhat behind Alex, peeking out over her shoulder. Alex was looking at the men in confusion, arms linked with Mari, who had landed next to me. I was at the front of the pile, closest to the men. We stared at the men in fright and confusion, and they just stared out of confusion.

One of the young anime men stepped forward, towards us.

I snatched a nearby stick off the ground and pointed it at the men like a weapon. "S-Stay back!" I commanded, trying to appear threatening, but my voice was shaking and so was the stick, which meant that I was shaking. "What anime are we in?" I asked them. "Avatar? Inuasha? Ranma 1/2? School Rumble?" I rattled off any anime name that came to mind. Then I realized how stupid of a question that was. "Er, never mind," I shook my head. It's not as if anime characters knew that they were in stories. I revised my question "Where are we? Who are you?"

The man who had stepped forward spoke. He was only about two inches taller that Mari and looked to be in his early twenties. He had short, messy blond hair, lime-green eyes, and very, _very_ thick, dark eyebrows. He wore a brown coat over a simple white dress shirt with a red tie. "It's alright," he had a British accent and used a comforting tone. "We aren't going to hurt you."

"We saw you farr from the sky," said a thin young man with a calm, soft Japanese accent. He was the shortest of the group, maybe only an inch taller than me, and he had black hair and dark brown eyes. He wore a white suit. "We wanted to see if you were arright."

"Safi, why can't that guy say his L's right?" I heard Zara say softly, hopefully softly enough for the Japanese man not to hear.

"Ayia!" said a young man with a Chinese accent. "That was some fall!" He was only an inch or two taller than the Japanese man, and he had dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and amber-brown eyes. He wore white mandarin-collar jacket and dark green pants. "We didn't think that anyone could survive a fall from that great of a height."

"You are alright, da?" said a man with a Russian accent. He had to be six feet tall, the tallest of the group. He had a round, childish face and a more prominent nose for an anime character. He had very light beige hair and his eyes were a vivid violet. He wore a very light pink scarf over a white hooded jacket over a brown sweater vest, white dress shirt, red tie, and dark pants. "You do not seem to have any injuries."

I lowered my stick slightly. Maybe these guys weren't a threat. "Yeah," I said. "Everybody alright?" I turned around to look at my friends and assess any possible injuries.

"Just cuts and bruises," Mari answered.

"Zat is impossible!" a man with a German accent exclaimed. He was tall, only about an inch shorter than the Russian, and quite muscular. His blond hair was slicked back and he had sky blue eyes. His face was very stern, yet quite handsome. We wore a deep brown suit with a matching tie and a white dress shirt. He looked to be about twenty, but his aura of seriousness made it hard to judge. "How could you have possibly lived after falling from zat high?"

"No flippin' clue," Alex said. "How high were we?"

"You had to have fallen from at least a mile high," the British man answered with an expression on his face that was a mix of shocked, disturbed, and concerned.

Silence dominated the air as my friends and I turned to look at each other in chock. A mile high? Surviving that should have been impossible...

"We don't know," I answered as I turned back around to the men. "A miracle." I stated, seeing how there was no other explanation. "But you still haven't answered my question," I said, raising my stick again. "Who are you?"

The British man was about to answer, but he was interrupted.

" 'Sup dudettes!" exclaimed an enthusiastic man that didn't have an accent, but he had a very loud, obnoxious voice. He was just barely taller than the Brit, and he wore glasses. He had short, dusty blond hair with a small hair sticking up near his scalp and blue eyes. He wore a simple white dress shirt, a mahogany tie, tan blazer and tan pants. He looked to be maybe not quite twenty. Then he said something very strange. "I'm America! Your very own country!"

"You bloody idiot!" the Brit broke his calm demeanor and I watched his anime face contort with expression. His eyes went all white and his mouth got bigger when he yelled, "You're not supposed to tell them that!"

My friends and I looked at each other, each one of us astonished by the extreme expressions that were common to anime but didn't exist in our world.

"Ciao bellas!" said a man with an Italian accent who had been hiding behind the German man. He was only a tiny bit taller that Mari. He had short auburn hair with a random curl sticking out the left side of his head. His expression of happiness was so extreme that his eyes were squeezed so tightly that I couldn't tell what color eyes he had. He wore a striped dress shirt with a green tie and white pants. He looked to be about twenty, although he acted much younger. "My name's Italy!"

"Dummkopf!" the German man got angry extremely fast, and his angry face, under different circumstances, would've been quite funny. "That's supposed to be a secret!"

"Aah! I'm so sorry Germany!" 'Italy' cried, his expression changed from extreme happiness to extreme fear and he trembled violently, even though somehow I thought that 'Germany' wouldn't hurt him. I still couldn't see his eyes.

"Bonjour, ma cheries," said the last man with a French accent. He was the same height as the Brit, although he looked to be in his mid twenties. He had shoulder-length, wavy blond hair, stubble on his chin, blue eyes and a suave smile. "I am France, le pays de amour," he said with a wink.

"The what-da-wha?" Zara asked, confused.

"The country of love," Mari translated.

"Ohonhonhon, you speak ma language?" 'France' asked.

"Oh no you don't, you frog!" the Brit exclaimed as he smacked 'France' in the face.

" 'Ey! I was just having a conversation, Britain!" 'France' retorted.

"Shut up!" yelled the Chinese man. "You are giving away our secret!"

"Countries...?" I asked, glancing at my friends, who were as confused as I.

"I guess it's possible," Safi said quietly. "This is an anime after all. Not much _isn't_ possible."

'Britain' facepalmed and sighed. "Yes," he said. "We are all the personifications of our countries, and it's _supposed_ to be a secret," he said pointedly at 'America', who only smiled in response. So that guy really was our country? Oh gosh... "I am Britain," he introduced himself.

"Ni hao!" said the Chinese man. "I am China!"

"Konichiwa," said the Japanese man with a small bow. "I am Japan. I am very preased to meet you."

"I am Russia, da," said the Russian man with a smile,

"Unt I am Germany," said the German.

"So wait," Alex said. "In this world, each country is a person?"

The countries nodded.

Alex let this sink in for a minute, then she yelled, "TAKE ME TO AUSTRALIA!"

I slapped a hand over her mouth and looked back at the countries, who were surprised at the sudden outburst. My face began to heat up and I laughed nervously, "Heh heh he-AAH!" I yelled as I snatched my hand away. 'Alex!" I said in a harsh whisper. "Don't. Lick. My. Hand."

Alex just smiled at me.

I turned back to the countries, who all had weirded-out expressions on their faces.

"Uh, er, uh," I said intelligently, trying to think of something to say. Then, I saw that Zara had materialized next to Italy. She stood there staring at him, and him at her nervously. Suddenly, she hugged him and started shaking him back and forth violently.

"YOU MADE PASTA!" she screamed.

Poor Italy's head was flinging back and forth wildly, and I was sure that Zara was going to give him whiplash. "Aah! Germany help me! She's attacking me!" He screamed.

"Guys help me!" I yelled as I grabbed Zara before Germany could I and tried to pry her off. When I got no response, I looked over at my friends. Alex had a giddy look on her face, still thinking about Australia no doubt. Safi was sitting stock still, the only part of her body moving was her eyes, which were going back and forth between Britain, Alex and China. She had a love for One Direction, Australians and pandas, but I hoped that her shyness would keep her at bay. Mari was also staring at Britain.

"Mari!" I yelled to her, still trying to pry Zara away from Italy. "Stay with me!"

"Harry Potter," Mari moaned like a zombie, looking as if she might attack Britain in a hug. I tried to think of something I could do to snap her out of it. The only thing I could think of would be a horrid lie, and I might cry, but I had to do it. "Jason is better than Percy!" I yelled at her.

That snapped her out of it immediately, but then she glared death at me. "How could you?!" she demanded. "Traitor!"

"I lied! I had to do it! I'm so sorry! Now help me get Zara off this guy!"

Mari then returned to her normal self, got up and helped me pry Zara off.

"Watch her teeth," I warned Mari as she held down Zara. "Tell her something she'll hate."

Mari nodded and then bent and whispered something in Zara's ear, which at first made Zara very angry, but then she relaxed and Mari let go of her.

I then walked over to Safi who hadn't moved, but she looked like she was about to crack. I sat down next to her. "Safi," I said. "I'm sorry I have to do this, but," I whispered into her ear, "Death to all mangoes."

Safi whirled around at me and I just nearly dodged a slap in the face. Anger dominated her face briefly, but then she returned to normal once she realized why I'd said what I did.

"Now go help Alex," I told her. "You know what you have to say."

Safi's eyes widened at me. "I-I can't!" she said. "Please don't make me say it!"

I sighed and then walked over to a still giddy Alex. I didn't sit down next to her, that would be too dangerous. Instead, I said as quickly as I could. "Australiansaren'thot!"

"No!" she screamed and tried to attack me, but I had already jumped out of reach. "I've even converted you into a J- Crewie!"

"Shut up Alex!" I yelled, not willing to admit that I had become a fan of any boy band. "Snap out of it!"

Alex looked at me, puzzled for a moment, then her face registered realization. "Oh you were just-"

"Yes!" I said. A sighed and sat down, tired out quickly from the many threats of disembowelment. The imitate threat had been extinguished. It's not like I didn't have my own reasons for screaming and glomping the countries also, but I was trying to keep them at bay. And I'll even admit that it was hard.

I forced myself to look at the countries.

Most of them were sweatdropping, with their eyes had gone white, and they're faces had changed from scared to terrified.

My faces got extremely hot. I don't know if I blush or not, but it sure felt like I was now. "Uh," I said trying to think of what I could possibly say. "I'm so sorry about that. We're not usually like this," I lied. "We've all had a long, confusing night, and I think we're all a little bit hysterical."

The countries stared at us for a moment. Then Russia, the only country who hadn't looked terrified of us, smiled. "You girls are so cute," he said.

Now my friends, the other countries, and I all turned to stare at him.

"I'm not cute," I heard Safi mutter quietly.

Then the countries turned back to us and we stared at each other in silence.

"Vell," said Germany slowly, turning to his fellow countries. "It has been a crazy night, unt zese girls have obviously been zrough a lot. Maybe it vould be best for zem if ve found a place for zem to stay ze night."

"Yeah bro!" America exclaimed as he fist-pumped. "They should totally stay at my house because they're my citizens and I'm the hero!"

"I do not think that wourd be any good for their hearth," Japan mumbled quietly.

"They could always stay with me," France said as he winked at us again.

"NO!" the countries all yelled at him.

"It is getting dark," Russia observed. "Why not just let them stay at my house, da?"

The countries all looked at him, even more terrified of him then they had been of us. It was weird, he seemed innocent enough, but something about him made me...perturbed.

"They can't stay with any one of us," Britain said. "It wouldn't be right for young women to stay at a man's house."

"But the commie's right about one thing," America said, which confused me because Russia isn't communist anymore. "It is getting dark."

We all looked around. Sure enough, the evening was turning into twilight. Which was funny because when we left our world, it had been late at night.

"I know!" China said after a pause. "We'll let them stay at the World Conference Hall, at least until we can figure out what to do with them."

"Excuse me," Mari spoke up. "What to do with us?"

The countries turned back to us. "Yes," Britain said. "We don't know how long you'll be here, so we must make accommodations for you."

"But why not just hand us over to the authorities?" Mari asked. "Wouldn't that be easier than doing it yourselves?"

The countries looked at each other a bit nervously, as if they had been hoping that Mari wouldn't ask that question. The Japan spoke up. "Werr," he said. "You know our secret, therefore we are responcabre for you. It is the porite thing to do. Besides, I do not think that your...situation, would be suitabre for the authorities to handre."

"We have to make sure zat you keep our secret," Germany added. "Ve need you to come viz us so zat ve can keep an eye on you."

"So, you're kidnapping us." Alex summed it up.

"Are any of you minors?" Britain asked.

My friends and I shook our heads.

"Then it is only abduction if you do not come with us willingly," said Britain with a small smile.

My friends and I looked at each other, and Alex motioned us into a huddle.

"Uh, we'll be just a moment," I said to the countries before joining the huddle.

"I think that we should go with them," Alex said.

"What?" I asked her. I'd been thinking about making a break for it. "Are you crazy?"

"Yes," Alex answered. "But that aside, we need their help. And anyway, who wouldn't want to be kidnapped by eight hot guys?"

"_I_ wouldn't," I said. "We don't even know if these guys are who they say they are. I mean, countries? They could be escapes from the funny farm!"

"They're dressed pretty nicely for that," Mari countered.

"That's just what they want you to think!" I said pointing a finger at her. "We are in an anime after all; they could be dangerous."

"I don't know," Zara said. "They seem alright to me," Now Zara may be ditzy and crazy, but she's not dumb, and she also happens to be a great judge of character.

"Yeah," Mari agreed. "Besides, I think that if these guys are who they say they are, they're are best shot at getting home."

I thought for a moment, then I said, "Safi, what do you think."

We all turned to look at Safi, who was looking at the ground, silent in thought. Then, she said, "Guys, we're all alone in an anime world where countries are people. We need help, that's putting it mildly, and I have a feeling that these guys are going to be the best help we can get. No one who didn't see us fall is going to believe our story."

After a moment of thinking, I asked, "Anybody got any better ideas?"

No one replied.

"We're in agreement then? We're going to go with these strange anime guys who claim to be their own countries?"

Everyone nodded.

I sighed. I decided to trust my friends' judgment. "Alright," I said. "Let's do this thing."

My friends smiled and we turned back to the countries, who had been waiting patiently. They now looked at us expectantly.

I took a deep breath, then said, "We have decided to come with you, willingly."

"Yay! We're going with the countries! We're going with the countries!"Zara sang as she skipped around. She stopped in front of Italy, who cringed as if waiting for impact. "Hey," she said, poking him in the arm and he looked at her. "Sorry for glomping you," she said. "I just really like pasta, we all do!" she motioned to the rest of us.

Italy's face lit up. "Me too!" he exclaimed. "Pasta's the best! Besides, when I'm not being shaken like Japan when he rides with me, I like hugs!" and to prove this, he gave Zara a hug, and she hugged back, beaming happily.

"By the way," Britain said, smiling slightly, "I don't believe that we've had the pleasure of learning your names."

"I'm Marina," Mari said with a grin.

"I be the amazing Alexandra!" Alex proclaimed, lifting her chin high.

"I'm Safira," Safi said shyly, but she was smiling.

"My name is Zara!" Zara exclaimed happily.

"And I'm Adaliz," I said, a friendly smile spreading across my face. Hey, maybe this wouldn't be so bad. At least we were all still together.

The countries smiled, well except for Germany, but he didn't look unhappy. I got the feeling that he didn't smile much.

"We should probably get going," China said. "It is getting cold and these girls are in night clothes."

I looked down and sure enough, China was right. I crossed my legs apprehensively, a little embarrassed that I'd been seen by a bunch of guys in my fuzzy cow pajama pants.

"Alrighty then!" America exclaimed. "To the World conference Hall! Everyone follow the hero!" He yelled as he pushed himself to the front of the group and then began marching in a way that I guess he thought heroic. If this was our country...no wonder everybody hates us!

Alex laughed and ran to join him, marching 'heroically' at America's side, who beamed at her.

Some of the other countries shook their heads at our country as we all followed.

"Um," I heard Mari say in front of me, and I saw her walking beside Britain. "I just wanted to say, it's your country that Harry Potter came from, so thanks."

Britain grinned at her. "You're very welcome," he said. "Those are some of my favorite books. The magic simply fascinates me."

Mari smiled. "Me too!" she said, and then they struck up a conversation about spells and stuff I wouldn't know about because I don't read Harry Potter.

Safi walked next to me, trying not to draw attention to herself, but China came up to her and smiled. "Ni hao," he said pleasantly. "You remind me of a little panda."

Now, this I found random, but apparently Safi liked it because she smiled, blushing madly. "I love pandas," she told him softly.

"I love pandas too!" China exclaimed "They are so cute!" He then went on to talk about pandas. Safi listened in genuine interest, smiling and nodding and even putting her own two cents in every once in awhile as she became more relaxed.

I could also hear Zara and Italy having a lively conversation about pasta from behind us. Well, at least it started out about pasta, then it switched to pizza, and then to many other things. Italy seemed to be as random as Zara, and that was saying something.

I walked along in silence. All my friends were talking to someone, and I was too shy to star up a conversation myself. As we walked, I started shivering after awhile. I looked down t my feet, which were bare. Dang, it hadn't seemed like a big deal when Haily ate my socks, but now I was walking around at night without anything on my feet, and it was a chilly night. Well, there was nothing I could do about it, so I kept walking and didn't complain.

"Hey," someone said, and I turned to see Germany walking to my right. "You look cold," he said. It was then that I realized that there were small shiver-lines around my body, especially near my feet. Germany had noticed this already, so I couldn't lie and say that I wasn't cold.

"It's alright," I said. "I'm hot blooded anyway. I'm fine."

Germany looked at my feet for a moment, not saying anything. Then he stopped and took off his shoes. "Here," he said, holding them out to me. "Take zese."

"No you don't have to-" I tried to protest but when I saw Germany's unwavering expression, his sky blue eyes like stone, I stopped and took the shoes. "Thank you," I said, putting them on. They were much too big for me, but they were warm and I sighed with relief, a small smile on my face.

"Vhere _are_ your socks?" Germany asked me as we continued walking.

"Oh, um," I said, looking back to my feet. "Safi's crazy dog ate them."

Germany nodded in understanding. "Dogs can be like zat," he said. "I have zree at home."

"Three?" I asked, looking back up at him. "That must be a handful. What are their names?"

"Blackie is a German Shepard, Berlitz is a doberman, unt Aster is a hovawart."

I smiled. "Cool," I said. "I love dogs, even if they eat my socks."

"Do you have any?"

"I had a couple when I was a kid, but they weren't very good dogs. The last time I had one was when I was...thirteen I think. I can't afford more than an ankle-bitter dog right now, and I can't stand them."

"I hate zose!" Germany said. "Zey are always barking, and zeir eyes bug out of their heads."

I giggled slightly. "I'd never do this myself," I said. "But I heard somewhere that it's possible to squeeze them so hard that their eyes pop out,"

"No vay! Zat's disgusting!"

"Isn't it?" I laughed. "You'd think it'd happen more often the way people squeeze them and carry them around all the time."

"I've never understood zat. Vhy can't zey let zeir dogs valk on ze ground like normal dogs?"

"I know right? If you want something to carry around all the time, get a cat."

I saw what might have been the start of a smile on Germany's face, but then we both noticed whispering and giggling behind us. We turned to look at Italy and Zara, who when they saw us put their hands behind their backs and started whistling.

"Zara," I said, confused. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Zara giggled innocently. "Just talking."

Germany said nothing, he just looked at Italy.

Still confused, I turned back around to continue walking, but I tripped on one of Germany's big shoes and faceplanted into the ground.

Zara laughed, Italy cried out in surprise, China said "Ayia!" and Safi gasped. I pressed my face into the ground, thinking...more or less, _Fliiiiiiiiiiip_. My clumsiness had struck again, in front of people we had just met.

"Mein go-! Are you alright?" I heard Germany exclaim as he and Safi helped me up.

My face was burning with embarrassment. I couldn't think of anything to say, but luckily Zara piped up from behind me and said, "Don't worry! We're all clumsy like that!", and Safi nodded in agreement while she tried not to smile.

"Five more Italys," Germany sighed, and I turned my head to see him put his face in his hand. Somehow I got the feeling that wasn't a good thing. "Vell," he said. "Please try not to hurt yourselves."

"Oh, we never try to," Zara said. "It just happens."

I giggled softly, trying to laugh off my embarrassment. "Once," I said, rubbing the back of my head. "I slipped down the same set of stairs twice in the same trip down."

Germany stared at me, as if he wondered how on earth I'd lived this long. "How did you manage zat?" he asked.

"Well, um," I said, my face heating up again. "They were thin, steep stairs made of smooth metal, and there wasn't much light in the room."

"... I guess zat is a little more understandable."

"We've gotten better though," Safi pointed out. "That happened when we were freshmen in high school."

"True," I said, smiling a bit as I made a conscious effort to walk slower in Germany's shoes. "Very true."

Soon, we were at the World Conference Hall. When we got inside, the countries found some blankets and pillows in storerooms for emergencies in the basement.

"Well," Alex said through a yawn as we took the blankets. "In the world we came from, it was almost midnight, so I think that we should get some shuteye."

Britain nodded. "We'll let you get some sleep then" he said, motioning to the other countries to leave.

As they began to leave, I suddenly remembered that I still had on Germany's shoes. "Germany! Wait!" I called and ran up to him. I handed his shoes back to him "Thanks for letting me use these," I said.

Germany nodded. "You're velcome. Guten noct," he said, turning to leave.

"Goodnight to you too,"

Germany turned back to me for a second, as if surprised that I'd understood him. Then he turned and left.

The rest of the countries said goodbye in their own native language as they filed out the door. Britain was the last to leave. "We'll come to check on you again in the morning," he said with a small smile. "Now sleep well," He closed the door.

"Goodnight," We called after him, then we got ready for bed. We arranged the many blankets that the countries had given us so that the biggest ones were on the bottom like a mattress. The rest were piled on top of us as we crawled in for the night without a word. We huddled close together, more for comfort than for warmth. We lied there silently for a long time.

"Guys?" Zara finally broke the silence. "What's going to happen now?"No one spoke for awhile; no one really had an answer.

"Yeah," Alex said. "Are we going to get back home?"

"Or will we be stuck here?" Mari asked.

"Forever," Safi added.

After another silence, I finally said, "Well, right now we're going to sleep. We'll be able to think better in the morning.

My friends nodded slowly in agreement, and then they settled in for sleep.

Being on the edge of the group, I turned to my open side, my back against Mari's, and said a silent prayer. When I was finished, I lied there thinking to myself. _What's going to happen now?_ I repeated Zara's question and I sighed. _I don't know guys... I just don't know._


	3. WWIII: Food Style

"Lees, you should get up,"

I pressed my face into my pillow and waved my hand around. "I'll get up when the waffles are ready," I mumbled. I hadn't remembered that we weren't at Safi's party anymore.

"There are no waffles,"

I lifted my head a bit, keeping my eyes shut. "Pancakes?"

"No."

"French toast?"

"No!"

"Then what da heck are we havin?!'"

"Adaliz! Remember where we are?"

I paused a moment. "… Oh yeah," I said. "… So, no breakfast?"

"I think You'd better get up,"

"Why?"

"The countries are coming…and you have bedhead."

It took some time for my groggy brain to process the significance of that statement. I always got bedhead…bedhead…BEDHEAD! I shot upwards and looked at my friends. Safi and Mari were standing over me, Zara was searching around the room, looking in cupboards, saying, "Waffles are you here?" and Alex was still asleep.

"Don't worry, we'll get to her next," Mari said, nodding towards Alex.

"We figured you'd want to fix…that," Safi explained. "Before the countries came."

I put a hand to my head and asked, "Is it bad?"

My friends nodded and I felt the utter chaos that was my hair with my hand. I shot up and found a nearby bathroom. I ran in, took one look at the mirror and shrieked. It occurred to me that this was the first time I'd seen my anime self. It was weird looking so…simple. The lack of definition made it hard to recognize myself, but it was me. My eyes were larger and more reflective, but they were the same maple-syrup brown, and my pixie cut hair was still bright blue. My hair. Oh gosh my hair. If I didn't look anime before, I sure did now. My hair stuck up all over the place and I looked like an anime action hero. Lacking a shower, I dunked my head in the sink instead. When I pulled up, I expected to see blue dye in the water since my color was fading, but I didn't. Then I looked up at the mirror and noticed that my natural hair color wasn't poking through my scalp anymore. Wincing, I plucked a hair out of my head and studied it. It was blue to the root. I had naturally blue hair. Wow. Blue hair. That was the last straw.

I cracked.

"GIAAAAAAAAH!" I screamed as I ran out of the bathroom. "I HAVE BLUE HAIR! I HAVE BLUE HAIR!"

"ADALIZ! Calm down!" Safi screamed and she took ahold of my shoulders. "You've had blue hair for a while now!"

"No! You don't understand!" I screamed back. "It's _naturally _blue!"

"Really?" Zara asked. "Is my hair natural now too?" and she tried to see her own scalp.

"Hold still," Mari said, looking at Zara's head. "Yup, yours is too."

"Sweet!" Zara said, not freaking out like I had. "Now I don't have to pay for re-dyes!"

"Lees," said Safi, releasing my shoulders. "You might wanna go dry your hair. It's sopping wet."

"… Oh…right," I said, recovering from my shock before dashing to the bathroom again. Since it was a public bathroom, there were no towels, so instead I dried my hair in those had-air-drier thingies. It took a while, but it got the job done. Once I fixed my hair I went back out to join my friends. Alex was awake now, though she didn't look too happy about it. Zara had shown Alex her newly colored hair.

"Oooooookay," Alex said. "At least that's not the weirdest thing that could've happened."

"Don't jinx it," I said walking over to them. "Anyone know when they're supposed to be here?"

"No idea," Mari said, looking at her watch. "But it's about-listen," she stopped short and we all listened. We turned towards the door and heard many feet approaching. Soon, the door opened a crack, and America's head popped through.

"Yo dudettes! He said loudly. "Ya'll awake yet?"

"Hi America!" Alex said with a smile. "Yup we're all awake!"

"Good!" America replied as he kicked the door open. In his hands was a great big heaping plate of-

"Waffles!" Zara exclaimed as she began to jump up and down excitedly.

Italy appeared from behind America. "Hello to you pretty ladies!" he said with a big smile. "How did you sleep?"

"We slept good Italy!" Zara replied with a wave and a smile.

"That's _well_. You slept _well_." Britain said before coming into view. He smiled at us. "Good day ladies," he nodded to us.

"We have brought you some breakfast, da!" Russia said with a smile as he came in, trailed by the rest of the countries, each one of them holding food. The smell of all the food was so tantalizing that my mouth watered and my stomach growled, and my friends looked equally hungry.

"Food sounds very good right now," Mari said with a smile.

The countries set up the food at a long table that was probably used for their meetings and my friends and I sat down next to each other. As the food was passed around I took a little bit of everything. I'd been a very picky eater in the past but I had changed that now, and I'd always liked foreign foods.

Italy had brought some pastries, Germany brought sausages with cheese, Japan brought steamed rice and something called miso soup, China brought some fried noodles, Russia brought 'oladushki', which looked like pancakes, and France had brought crepes.

As Britain's plate was passed to me, I recognized something next to the pudding

"Sheepskin!" I cried, delighted.

Britain looked at me funny, "No," he said. "It's fried bread dough."

"Is that what it's normally called?" I asked. "My family always called it sheepskin. I would've never guessed it to be British, but the point it is its delicious!"

Every single one of the countries stared at me in shock.

"… What?" I asked nervously.

"Oh, ma Cherie," France said. "Anything that comes from Britain's house is certainly not delicious, if it is not toxic."

"My food is not that bad Francy-pants!" Britain yelled indignantly.

"Uh, it's deep fried bread dough smothered in cinnamon and sugar," I said flatly. "What's not to like?" I took a large piece for myself.

"Sounds like a doughnut!" Zara piped up.

"Exactly!" I said, pointing my sheepskin at her before taking a bite. As soon as I had, I wished I hadn't. It was the most disgusting sheepskin I'd ever had; it tasted like real _sheep skin_. I closed my eyes and forced myself to chew and swallow, fighting a gag reflex. When I looked up, I was the countries all watching me again. All the attention was making me uncomfortable.

Just then, America burst out laughing. "Britain can't even make doughnuts right!" he cried.

"Shut up you bloody git!" Britain screamed, seriously pissed off.

I wanted to disappear soooo badly. I felt terrible for getting someone laughed at, and I turned to my friends for support.

Mari, who had taken some sheepskin before me, was now eyeing it cautiously. Safi looked at me with pity; she knew what it was like to not want to be the center of attention. Alex was daring Zara to eat some sheepskin, but for once Zara didn't look so sure. Instead, she shrugged Alex off and finished her waffle.

"Zara!" America exclaimed. "Dude, you just ate like five waffles in three minutes!"

Zara paused, a now pastry-filled hand halfway to her mouth. "That's nothing," she said. "I once ate seven pancakes in five minutes, and I've eaten more than that."

America gaped at her. "Where do you put it all?!" he asked.

"My legs are hollow," she said simply. "It all goes to my legs." She slapped her thigh and took a bite out of her pastry. "Mm! Italy these are delicious!"

"Thank you!" Italy replied happily. "I wanted to bring pasta, but Germany wouldn't let me."

"Zat is not a breakfast food." Germany grumbled like he'd said that many times before.

"But China brought pasta for breakfast," Alex pointed out.

"No," China said. "I brought _noodles_. Pasta is made from flour, noodles are made from rice. Noodles and pasta are very different."

"I don't know…" Alex said, lifting a fried noodle to her eye before eating it.

I glanced towards my friends, and then I did a double take. Zara's hands were in a braced position against the table and her eyes were wide as she stared at Russia. Russia was smiling and staring back, only it wasn't staring back, only it wasn't a stare like Zara's, he was just looking at her without blinking. Zara's eyes got wider and so did Russia's smile. Suddenly, Russia's eyes opened wide and his smile turned into an open-mouthed smile and he was suddenly surrounded by a purple aura. It happened so suddenly that I jumped in my seat, and so did Zara.

"Aah!" she screamed, but then she banged her head against the table. "Dang it!" she exclaimed in defeat. "Dude! How do you do that?!"

Russia laughed, which sounded high and unmanly, but it seemed to fit him. "It is fun to have these 'staring contests'."

"Wait, you just-!" France exclaimed but didn't finish his statement.

"But he's so-!" China said in a similar fashion.

"How could you stand-!" Britain unconsciously followed their example.

Zara shrugged, ignoring the other countries' awed stares and continued eating.

"So, is there a Greece?" Mari asked.

"Yes, Britain replied with an annoyed tone, though it was not directed at Mari. "But he's always sleeping."

"He seems stoned!" America put in, his mouth full of food.

"Well, he can't be all bad," Mari said. "I mean, he did invent Greek mythology, which is the basis for Percy Jackson."

"Percy Jackson rocks!" America exclaimed as he jumped up and did a fist pump.

"Actuarry," Japan said. "That wourd be his mother, Ancient Greece."

"Either way," Mari said. "Because of Percy, I am grateful to him."

"I don't know what all the fuss is about," Alex said, not looking up from her food. "Percy Jackson isn't even cute."

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?" Mari screamed.

Alex shrugged. "He can't compare to Australians," she said.

"THAT'S IT!" Mari screamed and launched herself at Alex, knocking her off her chair. What ensued after that was a dust cloud (yes inside a building) from which occasional limbs or heads in chibi form would pop out of and then disappear into again.

I glanced at the other countries nervously, but most of them acted like this was normal behavior. "Erm, hey guys," I said to my fighting friends. "Guys? GUYS!" I shouted at them. The dust cloud vanished and Mari and Alex were revealed with each one's hands around the other's throat. They both stopped to look at me.

"Let's try _not_ to go completely anime crazy yet!" I told them.

They looked at each other for a second before letting go. Mari made an "I've got my eyes on you' sign before sitting down.

Safi had been pretty quiet, as expected, and I looked over at her. She'd eaten all her food except for Britain's pudding, which if it was as bad as his sheepskin, I couldn't blame her nor not eating. Instead, she seemed to be seeing what she could do with it. She had already made a small pudding-snowman using her spoon and now she was silently but dramatically destroying it. When she looked up and saw me watching her, she leaned in towards me and whispered, "It's just like the mashed potatoes at school!"

I'm pretty sure that fried noodles almost came out my nose as I tried so hard not to laugh. When I recovered, I saw Safi scoop up a big glob of pudding and act like she was going to take aim with it.

"YOU wouldn't!" I whispered, a huge grin spreading across my face. Obviously Safi would never do anything like that, but the idea of it happening anyway was extremely amusing and I secretly hoping that it would.

Safi shook her head, grinning, "That would be funny though," And she pulled back on her spoon as if to shoot.

Suddenly, her finger slipped. The world went into slow motion, which made the whole scene that much more painful to watch. The glob of pudding sailed through the air, across the table, headed straight for… Oh gosh, it was headed straight for Germany! Safi and I were frozen in horror as we watched the pudding not waver from its path to its chosen target. Germany looked up from his food just in time for the world to switch back to real time and smack him straight in the face.

Everyone gasped when they saw what had happened and everyone at the table went silent, watching, waiting…

Still frozen in horror, Safi and I stared, mouths agape as Germany wiped some pudding out of his eye. Safi's hand was still holding the spoon in a post-launch position, so Germany wasily identified her as the culprit and glared at her.

Everyone waited in silence for something to happen.

Safi looked at me, her eyes pleading for help.

I gulped as I looked back at Germany, who had stopped glaring at Safi and was now looking at only me. He wasn't glaring quite as much anymore, but looked at me sternly, waiting for an explanation.

"Oh. My. Gosh." I said, still stunned, but I wasn't going to let Safi take the brunt of this. "I am so sorry! I swear we weren't aiming for anybody, especially not you! We were just-"

"That's a great idea!" America exclaimed suddenly. He jumped up and, holding a syrup-drenched waffle over his head, yelled, "FOOD FIGHT!" and chucked it into Britain's face.

Britain didn't move as the waffle fell slowly and comically from his face and then dropped into his lap. He stood up calmly, his faced covered in syrup, placed one hand against the table and with the other took a handful of pudding. "TAKE THIS YANKIE!" he screamed as he threw it at our home country, who ducked, and so the pudding smashed into China's head.

"AYIA!" China cried angrily. "You western nations are so immature!" and he grabbed some fried noodles and threw them.

From there it escalated into WWIII: Food Style. America, Britain and China continued throwing food, and France was throwing crepes into peoples' faces for the pure joy of it. Russia was pulling food out of a faucet pipe that he'd grabbed out of nowhere and was throwing it, though no one dared to throw any back at him, and he was smiling happily. Italy was hiding beneath the table, crying and babbling incoherently while waving a little white flag. Japan sat in his chair, quietly eating his food, acting as if he didn't notice food flying past him.

"Hey!" Mari shrieked as she barely dodged a flying crepe. "Watch it!" she yelled as she picked up the crepe just thrown and whipped it into France's face with a smack with force equal to a slap in the face. France went down. Alex and Zara were laughing and throwing food also, having a great time. Safi had sunk a little in her seat, looking horrified at what she'd started, yet she watched the fight in great interest. It was quite amusing to see grown people throwing food at each other.

I'll admit it; the food fight looked like a lot of fun, especially since everyone was in on it, but I didn't because I'd seen Germany before I could grab any food. His eyes were squeezed shut and his teeth were gritted. A growling sound came from him, which escalated in volume. He looked like a volcano that was about to explode, and then he did.

"**EVERYONE SHUT UP!**" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

Everyone stopped what they were doing immediately and looked at Germany, a bit scared.

"Ve came here to velcome our guests not to fight like ve do at meetings! Just because one mistake is made does not mean zat you can all start zrowing food! Sit dovn stop acting like children unt eat your food!"

Everyone who had been standing sat immediately and it was silent for a long time.

"… We are very sorry, ladies," Britain broke the silence by apologizing to _us_. "It appears that we have gotten carried away. I suppose you think us quite off our rockers now."

My friends and I looked at each other, unable to think of anything to say, yet all thinking the same thing. Zara started it off with a giggle, then Mari started to chuckle. Safi was trying not to laugh, but she was having a hard time with it. Alex started laughing out loud and then I lost it too, clutching my stomach and laughing very hard. Soon, the five of us had fallen to the floor in a heap of anime girls, hopelessly lost in our laughter.

"Oh dear," Britain said worriedly. "It looks as if we have shocked them into hysteria."

"You-!" I cried out, gasping for breath. "You guys-think that-_you're _off your rockers?! Ha!" I stood up, still shaking from laughter as I helped my friends up. Still laughing, just not as hard as before, we all more or less leaned on each other for support. Once we'd calmed down enough to wipe the tears from our eyes and minimize our laughing to fits of giggles, I stepped forward towards Britain. "My good man," I said formally, too far into our post-laugh attack bliss to be embarrassed. "If you fine gentlemen are as crazy as this, then we are all going to get along just fine."

Britain looked at us for a moment, surprised, then he smiled. So did the rest of the countries, except for Germany. He sighed and put his chin in his hand. He looked like a person does after they've thrown their hands in the air and said "I give up!", like he knew that this was going to be a crazy ride but wasn't going to complain about it. I may have just imagined it, but I thought that I saw the barest hint of amusement in his eyes.

From that point on, it was as if a wall between is and the countries had broken down. We were all a lot more relaxed and conversations flowed more freely than before. Even Safi, whom Germany had forgiven for the pudding incident, spoke every now and then, which was saying something since we were in the company of men we barely knew. Germany made everyone clean up the mess we'd made in the meeting room, which was only fair since the room was meant for things slightly more sophisticated than food fights. Luckily, it didn't take very long. In animes, time seems to skips over boring parts, and this was no exception. The next thing we knew , the meeting room was literally sparkling with cleanliness.

"Ve should get going," Germany said to us all.

"Where are you going?" Mari asked, a little disappointed that they were leaving so soon.

"_We_," Britain said with a smile. "Are going to take you girls to where you'll be staying while you're with us.

"Sweet!" Alex said happily. "Let's go guys!" she beckoned to us as she skipped to the door.

"Wait," Safi stopped us. "Guys, we're _still_ in our pajamas!"

My friends and I looked at each other. Yup, we were. We didn't have anything else to wear.

"Who cares?!" Zara said and she ran out the door, into the world, in her pajamas.

My friends, some of the countries and I laughed as we joined her. As we went out the door, I noticed that there was still some pudding on Germany's face.

"Excuse me, Germany?" I said, making an attempt to be less hyper around this country. "You've got a little something on your face."

"Vhat?" Germany asked, his eyebrows scrunching together in confusion.

I bit down a giggle at his obliviousness. "There's still some pudding on your face," I told him. "Though I wouldn't recommend eating it," I said in a quieter voice.

"I heard that, you wanker!" Britain yelled at me, but he'd become much better natured and he smiled as he shook his fist at me.

I laughed and turned back to Germany, who wasn't laughing. "Ahem," I coughed, regaining a more serious demeanor as I glanced away for a second. "I, uh, I'm sorry about the pudding incident."

Germany sighed. "Aren't you and your friends a little old to be playing with your food?"

"… Yeah…," I said. There's no use denying it. "But aren't the other countries a little old to be fighting like children?"

Germany didn't say anything for a moment, then he sighed. "Yes. Yes they are." He said, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes.

"They give you headaches, don't they?" I asked.

Before he could say anything, we heard Italy yell in a sing-songy voice, "Germany! Germany!"

The tall blond nation sighed and nodded. "Especially that one," he grumbled.

Italy, trailed by Zara, came running up to Germany and glomped him, exclaiming, "Hug!", which surprised me greatly. Zara did the same, which did not surprise me.

Germany sighed again and pried the man off him. "Vhat is it Italy?" He said in the same tone an annoyed adult would use with a child.

"Germany! We're almost at the pretty ladies' new house!" he said excitedly.

"Yes I know Italy." He told the other nation. "Now go play until ve get zere."

Italy did and Zara followed him like a puppy. The two seemed to be getting along quite well.

"We're already there?" I asked Germany.

Germany nodded and looked at me. "Distance is different for us countries," he explained. "We often walk to each other's houses, which are in our home countries. Unt now zat you know about us, so vill it be for you unt your friends."

I paused for a moment, then I smiled. "Sweet!" I exclaimed. "That'll make getting around a lot easier!"

"Lees! Lees!" Mari called as she came running up to me. Mari didn't usually glomp me, but I found myself bracing for impact anyway. "We're there!" she told me.

"Alright!" I exclaimed and I ran after her. We joined the rest of our friends as we ran up the street to our new house. When we got to it, we all stopped and looked at it in silence.

"They're going to trust us?" Safi asked, looking at the house.

"With a house." Alex added.

"By ourselves." Zara said, grinning giddily.

We looked at each other, and the rest of us began to grin also.

"This," I said. "Is gonna be great."


	4. With a House

It was a relatively small house, about 30ft long by 24ft wide. A brick chimney ran its way up the front of the house, but no smoke came from it. The yard to the left went for only about twelve feet before it hit the woods, but the right yard stretched about thirty feet before reaching the woods. What impressed me the most were the solar panels on the roof and the home-sized wind turbine in the yard. I'd always wanted a 'green' house

A man, probably the seller, came out the door and strode down the walkway up to our group. He looked confused, but he was trying to hide it. "You folks must me the potential buyers," he said with a slight southern drawl. "Name's Berk. Nathan Berk. But you can call me Nate."

"Nice to meet ya Nate!" America greeted the man as he shook his hand enthusiastically. It didn't strike me as smart to let America to be the one to talk to the seller, but then again we were probably in his country. "I'm Mr. Jones, and these are my colleges; Mr. Kirkland, Mr. Bonnefoy, Mr. Yao, Mr. Braginsky, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Beilschmidt, and Mr. Honda." He gestured to Britain, France, Russia, China, Italy, Germany and Japan.

At first I was confused, then I thought, _THEY LIED TO US!_ My face began to heat up in anger, and I was about to yell at the 'countries', but then I remembered that the countries were supposed to be a secret, so maybe they used human names for public affairs. Yes, they wouldn't be stupid enough to lie to us and then to give it away right in front of us. I looked at my friends and I could tell that they'd been thinking the same thing. Safi looked like she'd just stopped Zara, and Alex and Mari both looked like they were probably biting their tongues.

"We're looking to buy a house for our friends," America gestured to us non-countries. "Marina, Adaliz, Safira, Zara, and Alexandra."

"Oh! You're here just for the ladies!" Nate exclaimed in realization, not greeting us. "That's good, cuz I don't got enough rooms for all of yous!" Then he looked at us funny and asked, "Why are they wearing pajamas?"

_Shoot,_ I thought, and everyone's faces echoed my thought. It was time for someone to do some quick thinking, which was not my strong suit.

"It's National Pajamas Day," Alex replied easily. "We're just celebrating the holiday. These guys aren't in on it cuz they're party poopers." She jutted her thumb at the countries.

"Oh," Nate said. "That makes more sense." He happened to look my way. "Nice cows," he said to me with a grin.

Now normally I would've just laughed this off, but I was so emotionally drained from lack of sleep and surplus of excitement that my composure wasn't what it should've been. My face went hot and I stared at the ground.

"Herr Berk," I heard Germany say quickly. "Ve vould like to see ze house now."

"Sure thing Mr. B-schmidt!" Nate replied with a smile, unaware of both my embarrassment and Germany's dislike for the nickname. "And please, just call me Nate." This guy must've been even more obtuse than me!

As everyone began to walk towards the house, I received some pats on the shoulders from my friends. I quickly regained composure and went with the group up the walkway and into the house.

"Have yourselves a look around," Nate said once everyone was in the door, gesturing to the house with a broad sweep of his arm. "I'm here to answer any questions you have."

The countries stayed with Nate for the most part, who gave them a tour of the house, while my friends and I opted to and run around the house looking at whatever we pleased. "Guys! Look at this weird oven!" Zara said.

I looked over and saw that it was indeed not your average oven. The stovetop was not attached to it. It was one of those old-style ovens that opened from the side with a large, windowless door and was surrounded by brick, which was partially because the chimney was behind it. It looked like it should've run on wood, but there were dials below it for adjusting heat.

"It kindof looks like a pizza parlor oven," Mari commented. "Especially with the bricks."

"It's big enough to put Zara in," Alex added.

"You are NOT going all Handsel and Gretel on me!" Zara yelled, to which we all laughed.

The kitchen countertop was made of rusty-colored granite that matched the bricks, and it ended halfway down the length of the house with a bar. In the middle was a square island.

"Whoever lived here must've really liked to cook," Safi commented.

"That's one big fridge for one guy," Alex commented, looking at the large, double door refrigerator.

"Good thing too," I replied, opening the door to look inside. "Since we eat like teenage boys after football practice."

"More like Australian teen guys after a rugby game," Alex corrected.

We laughed and then continued to the bathroom. We passed Nate and the countries on our way there; they were headed for the basement. Now, the five of us squeezing into a bathroom that was only ten feet by ten feet was never a smart move, but we didn't really care.

While in there, I found something intriguing between the shower and the sink. There was a small, square door in the wall. I opened it and stuck my head in for a better look. It was lined with sheets of metal like a vent, and it went both up and down. "Hey guys, check this out! Echo!" I giggled as my voice resounded down the tunnel. "What _is_ this?" I asked

"It's a laundry chute," I heard Mari answer, but I couldn't really see her from inside the chute. "Remember the hole in the bottom of the closet at my parents' house?"

"The one I almost fell down?"

"Yes. It's like that. And don't stick your head in any further or it'll get stuck."

Heeding Mari, advice, I pulled my head out, or tried to anyway. Oh no. "Guys! I'm stuck!" I exclaimed, struggling to remove my head from the hole in the wall, claustrophobia starting to set in.

Of course, my friends burst into laughter, like the good friends that they are.

"The countries have to see this!" Zara laughed and I guessed that she was headed for the door.

"ZARA!" I shrieked, loud enough for Zara to hear me, but hopefully not loud enough for the countries or Nate to hear, though the way my voice carried up the tunnel disturbed me. "I WILL KILL YOU!"

"No offence Lees," I heard Alex say, and I felt someone pat my back. "But you're not exactly in a …position, t6o be making threats," she snickered at her joke.

"Please Zara!" I switched from threatening to pleading. "I'm begging you! I'd be on my knees if I could be right now!"

"Then you wouldn't need to get out," Alex pointed out.

"Not helping!"

"Sorry Lees!" I heard Zara say, and I could hear her grin. "This is too good to pass-ow! Safi, let go!"

"No I heard Safi say as I heard the door click shut. "You are going to help us get her out of there."

"But-"

"No."

"Fine."

"Is there any soap?" I asked. "Something to make this easier?"

"Nope," Alex answered. "No one lives here, so why would there be soap?"

"Helpful," I said sarcastically.

"Hey now, watch your tone missy, or we'll go get the countries."

"NO!" I screamed, forgetting that I was trying to be quiet. "I'm sorry! Just please help me!"

"Say that Alex is more awesome than you."

"Fine!" I growled, hating that I was being toyed with. "Alex is more awesome than me! Now get me out of here! I'm claustrophobic!"

Someone's arms wrapped around my middle. "You ready?" I heard Mari say. "This'll probably hurt…a lot."

"Yes! Just get me out of here!" I was starting to panic now.

"Okay. One, two, three, pull!"

I bit down a scream of pain as my head was wrenched out of the laundry chute. Once I was out, I rubbed the sides of my head. After a moment, I looked at the hole in the wall, pointed at it angrily and said in a deep voice, "Evil."

"Well, you did stick your head in a laundry chute." Alex pointed out. "I'dve thought that if anyone'd do that, it'd be Zara."

"Yeah," Zara said, then she paused. "Wait… Hey!"

"Let's just keep going," I sighed.

We all exited the bathroom and continued looking around the house. The whole second half of the house was basically one large living room. The left looked more like a den, while the right was more open and had a sliding glass door that led outside to the patio. Directly across the house from the front door was a spiral staircase that went both up and down.

I started to lead the way down the stairs, but I stopped short when I heard Nate say to the countries, "The house has never made those noises before. It almost sounded like screaming in the vents."

"Go up! Go back up!" I hissed at my friends as I began pushing them backwards up the spiral staircase. If someone asked one of my friends about the noises, I knew that they'd spill the beans, and I had no intention of that happening.

"Why?" Zara asked from the back of the group.

"Let's see the second floor first! You know what they say! Start at the top and work your way down!"

"Isn't that-"

"Just go already!"

Eventually everybody went back up the stairs, much to my relief, and we went up to the second floor. There were six rooms, all the same size. Since we'd done a 180, that meant that left was right and right was left, so to our left were three bedrooms, and to the right was a bedroom, a bathroom, and another bedroom. As we looked in the rooms, we found that all the bedrooms were painfully almost identical, and the bathroom was nearly a carbon copy of the one downstairs.

"If we do stay here," Mari said, looking in another room. "We are going to make these rooms a lot more interesting."

"Paintjobs." I said simply, looking at the plain white walls. "Defiantly needs paintjobs."

"And 1D posters!" Zara exclaimed.

"PLEASE don't start the poster contest again!" I begged.

"Why noooooooooot? It's just an innocent who-can-put-the-most-1D-posters-on-their-wall contest!"

"Because that was absolutely ridiculous! Safi went bonkers from all those eyes staring at her!"

"Aaaaaand your point?" Alex asked, receiving a swat on the arm from Safi.

"Why'd you hold out that long?" Mari asked.

Safi shrugged. "I wanted to win."

We didn't stay there long, since there's only so much you can do when looking at empty rooms, and everyone started heading downstairs for the basement. I sighed, praying that Nate and the countries were down talking about the strange noises, and I followed my friends down.

When we got to the bottom of the stairs, we found a completely underground basement with concrete walls and carpeted floors. Along the right wall was some tile, on which were a washer and a drier, and beyond that was the equipment for heating the house, which is where we found Nate and the countries.

"Hey there gallies!" Nate said with a grin. "I was just about to show these fellas how to work the equipment for the panels and turbine, but I suppose that if you gallies will be the ones living here then I should be teaching it to you!"

We agreed and joined the countries. Looking around the room, I saw that the rest of it was empty, except for a fireplace on the far wall. That was confusing, since Nate was showing us the controls for clean energy. Mari noticed this too and asked him about him. Nate said that it was mostly for decoration, but could be used as a backup heating system if somehow both the thermal panels and natural gas heating system failed. Then Nate went back to showing us the equipment.

"And Santa Claus can use it on Christmas!" Italy exclaimed happily.

My friends and I looked at him. Italy was very childish true, but he was a grown man. Did he really believe in Santa Claus? I looked at the other countries, but they didn't seem to share our confusion. I decided to question this, "Santa Claus?"

"Of course," Britain said simply. When he saw our faces, he asked, "You don't believe in Santa Claus?"

We shook our heads.

The countries smiled knowingly at each other and then turned back to Nate.

Nate went on to teach us how to use the equipment, but not many of us or the countries were listening. Safi was too busy keeping Zara from pushing buttons for either of them to pay any attention;

"Safi, can I push the buttons?"

"No Zara."

"Pleeeeeease Safi!"

"I said no!"

"Too bad! Ima do it anyway! Ow! Leggo!"

Germany and Italy were in a similar situation;

"Ve! I want to push the buttons Germany!"

"Nein Italy. Stand still unt listen."

"But they're so pretty!"

"Italy!"

Alex, America and France were bored with all the techy talk.

"*sigh* Why do we have to know this?"

"Yeah! The hero shouldn't have to learn anything!"

"Oh mon ami, technology is so love-less, no?"

They started up a conversation about who knows what.

Britain and China both looked very annoyed at all the noise everyone was making, and Russia just stood there, smiling happily.

"I can't hear a thing!"

"Quiet down-aru!"

"Vodkaaaaaaa,"

Japan was quietly listening to Nate, but he was such a technologically advanced nation that he was probably only listening to be polite, although I did hear him mutter to himself something that I didn't catch al of.

"They wourd be abre to improve their paners if they just *mumbleing*"

Mari and I were both listening, but there was a lot of noise going on.

"How much of this are you getting?"

"About half."

"Me too."

"Hopefully we're catching different halves."

Nate either somehow didn't notice or didn't care, because he kept up his teaching undeterred. Once he'd finished his lesson on electric and thermal panels, wind turbines, etc., he finally showed us some instruction manuals. Good! At least we wouldn't be totally in the dark. Then everybody went back up to the first floor.

"Well, whaddya think of the house?" Nate asked us.

The countries looked at each other and at us. "If you don't mind," Britain said to Nate. "We would like a chance to discuss this."

"Sure thing!" Nate said with a grin as he stepped out of the room.

We all stood in a group as the countries talked about the quality of the house. I figured that they know better than I what a good house needed, so I just kind of zoned out for a while. I snapped out of it when I heard something that caught my attention.

"Zere are no vindows in ze bazrooms, unt zeir locks are gut unt strong."

"Excuse me?" I said, gathering the countries'attention. "Why is that important? I mean, my friends and I are all girls, so why is it a concern?"

The countries looked at each other for a second then they all looked at France.

"Mr. France has a rong history of being, um, a peeping tom." Japan said as if he wasn't too sure of the term.

"Peeping tom!" Britain exclaimed. "He's a downright pervert!"

I looked at France, who just sat there twirling his hair. "Guilty as charged," he said. "Not that any of you ladies would mind I'm sure," he took a step towards us that I guess was supposed to be seductive and said, "Why don't we just skip the house and you girls can come and live with me?" He was looking us over.

"Watch yourself," I growled, going into protective mode. Aint nobody gonna looks at my friends that way. Nobody. "She bites," I pointed at Zara, who bared her teeth. "She will taser you," Alex patted her pocket suggestively. "She will shove a book down your throat," Mari, being an anime now, pulled a thick Harry Potter book out of thin air. "She will scare you out of a love life," Safi wore her scary face, which was actually quite effective. "And I'll beat you to a pulp. And if you ever," I grabbed his collar and pulled his face close to mine. "_Ever_, touch, look at, or even _think_ of one of my friends in that way, what will we do Safi?"

Safi said in her soft-yet-dark voice, which was actually terrifying, "We will take you to Switzerland, the neutral country, tie you to a tree in the middle of a forest, set the edges of the forest on fire so that you can watch the flames get closer and closer, until they reach you and you burn to death."

The scariest part? She thought of that off the top of her head.

France's eyes had gone wild with fear. He scrambled away from us and hid behind the other countries, who most of also looked terrified. Italy was hiding behind Germany. France screamed, "You are worse that Russia!"

Russia laughed.

It occurred to me that I _may_ have overdone it, so I said, "But that's only if you try something."

"I won't try anything!" France wailed from his hiding place.

The countries said nothing. They stared at us in fear. I was mentally facepalming. Great. Now instead of getting the house we were probably going to the insane asylum.

Then they did the unexpected: They laughed! Most of the countries were laughing like they'd just heard the best joke ever. Even Italy was now laughing, probably only because he saw the other countries laughing.

My friends and I stood where we were, frozen in confusion. Maybe _we'd_ have to take _them_ to the insane asylum.

"What's so funny?" Mari asked over their laughter.

"We've never seen France so scared!" America howled, clutching his stomach.

"You scared his Francy-pants right off!" Britain cried before laughing again.

"EY! Zis isn't funny you guys!" France yelled angrily, but no one paid attention to him.

"He has always made advances-aru," China said, who was trying to restrain his laughter but it wasn't exactly working, "And he's been told off and threatened before, but never like that!"

"Ve vere vorried that you girls vouldn't be able to protect yourselves," Germany said. He wasn't laughing but he did look amused. "but now v se zat you can handle it yourselves."

My friends and I looked at each other. Had we _really_ just dodged that bullet? Wow. Talk about lucky. Good thing too, because I'm too claustrophobic to be put in a straitjacket. Once the countries had calmed down enough to talk normally again, they once again began to talk about the house. The difference was that now they were asking us about the house, how we liked it and stuff. We said that we liked it a lot and that we were just happy to have a place to stay. The countries then called Nate back in and they settled the deed on the house. "Alrighty!" Nate he happily. "When should I expect you to get the gallies moved in?"

"Now."

Nate was taken aback. "Now?"

"Yes, now."

"… Oh. Okay," Nate said. "Well the house is yours now, so I'll be on my way. Here are the keys, enjoy the house!" he called as he walked out the door.

"We will!" Zara called after him.

Everyone stood there looking at the empty house. Very empty.

"We shouldn't leave these girls in this empty house," China said. "There's nothing to do-aru."

"Vhat else can ve do vith zem?" Germany asked "You know where ve have to be soon… Oh nein," he said when no one answered. "Nein nein nein! Ve are not taking zem zere! Zat place is crazy enough!...*sigh* Fine."

"Where are we going?" Alez asked.

"Back to ze Vorld Conference hall." Germany said grimly. "You are going to attend a vorld meeting."


	5. We go to a meeting Well Sort of

_**YOUR FACE IS KAWAII! **_**'Ellos audience! **_*gets chased by Tobuscus and Pewdiepie* __**GERRRRRRRRRMAAAAAAAANYYYYYYY YYYY!**__**Some of my favorite YouTube guys are chasing me agaaaaaaain!**_

_**Anywho, here are my responses! Da-ze!**_

_**Sarpndo: Lol **__I__** thought it was the most fun ;) But the whole thing was a BALL**_ _**to write! I had so much fun, and I had no trouble making it longer this way!**_

_**TheAmericanNinja: Lol SO FLUFFY! The relationship-ly squeamish should turn away XD Lol yeah my friends and I are like this too; We crazy, no?**_

_**JCScannell**__**: Yay! What's life without humor, you know?**_

_**Atlantic Jewel: ISN'T HE KAWAII?! Lol Zara had a lot of fun on that part. YUS EPIC STRAWBERRY WWIV!**_

_**Katharonie**__**: Lol while that is a great idea, I'm pretty sure Adaliz would react to the suggestion the same way Japan would XD I LOVED messing with him like that! **__*Germany: "I heard zat!"*__** OH CRAP HE'S GOING TO GET MEEEEEEEE!**_

_**HURRY UP AND READ THE FIRKIN STORY BEFORE HE GETS ME!**_

So there I was, slung over Germany's shoulder like some sack of potatoes as he walked through the forest. It was a little weird…okay, a LOT weird, being carried around like that I hadn't been on someone's shoulders since I'd been a little kid, so you can imagine how strange it was as an adult.

_Gosh he's strong, _I thought. I was against his back after all; I could feel the well-developed muscles…

My eyes flew open. No. _No no no no NO!_ I wanted to keep my mind virgin! I knew that I was an adult so it was a little too late for that, but I try not to give into the sick-mindedness that was so stereotypical to our age group, and being carried by a big buff guy was _not helping_.

"Put me down!" I shouted, squirming around. I didn't want to be stuck in this position any longer.

"Stop struggling!" Germany ordered, tightening his grip around my legs. "You're only making zis harder!"

"That's kind of the point," I said, pressing my hands against Germany's back in an attempt to push myself loose.

Suddenly, Germany released my legs.

"GAH!" I exclaimed as I dropped head-first towards the ground.

In an instant, my legs were grabbed again and my descent was stopped. However, my hips were now across Germany's shoulder, rather than my stomach as before. This left me in a much more helpless position.

My breath quickened from my sudden almost-trip to the ground. A fear had been reawakened, a long-forgotten fear that had dissipated as I got older and was held less, but now it was back. An old fear, a fear of being dropped.

"don't drop me!" I shouted, hoping that I sounded more commanding than pleading.

"I zought you didn't believe in falling," Germany said as he began walking again.

My hands quickly grabbed the back of Germany's shirt at the sudden movement. It was a desperate attempt at preventing me from getting any lower, but I knew all the same that if I really was dropped that my precaution would be futile. I just didn't care.

"I don't," I said, trying not to look down. "But I believe in dropping, which I really hope you do not do to me right now."

"I don't plan on dropping you," Germany stated. "As long as you stop trying to get avay."

I sighed in defeat. "Fine." I said. "I'll stop. Just _don't drop me_."

"I von't."

"Promise."

"…Promise? Vhy?"

"Because I don't want to be dropped."

"I've already told you zat I von't."

"I know, and now I want you to promise."

After a pause, Germany sighed. "I promise." He said. "Now vould you please let fo of mein shirt?"

"… Pull me back up?"

"What?"

"If you insist on carrying me, then at least pull me back up!"

Germany sighed again, then he sort of bounced upwards in the way you would if repositioning a sack, sending me into the air.

I gave a yelp and let go of Germany's shirt to brace myself for impact, (because I thought that I was being dropped), but instead my legs were tugged on, pulling me so that my stomach was once again on Germany's shoulder.

I gasped as some air was knocked out of me. "Do you _enjoy _scaring the crap out of me?!" I asked him, although I sighed in relief at being in a much safer position. As long as I didn't push against Germany again, if he let go of my legs I wouldn't fall.

Germany didn't answer, and I sorely wished that I could see his face to try and guess that the heck he was thinking.

"Ve Germany!" I heard a familiar voice say, and the next thing I knew, Germany was attacked in a hug.

I gasped again as Germany's balance wavered, but he didn't drop me. I craned my head to try and see what was going on.

"Italy!" Germany scolded. "Vhy are you soaking vet?!"

"Lees!" I heard Zara say. My face began to get hot; I wasn't exactly in a normal position right now.

Zara walked into my line of sight. She twisted around so that her head was almost upside-down like mine. "What're you doin'?" she asked innocently.

I sighed. "Germany doesn't trust me not to run away anymore." I said softly.

Zara giggled. "Ha!" she said. "It's you for once and not me!"

My face burned because it was true and said nothing. I noticed that Zara was dripping water, so that gave me something to say. "Why are you all wet?" I asked.

Zara grinned. "Oh," she said, "I hid in a pond." like it was the most casual thing ever.

My eyes widened. "You hid in a pond?" I asked.

"Yes Echo!" Zara laughed. "And Italy fell in too!"

I said nothing, listening to Germany grumble about being all wet now, and Italy had just hugged him. This sent me into a fit of giggles. _Better you than me big guy_, I thought to myself. "Have you seen the others?" I asked Zara aloud.

She looked like she was about to say no, but then there was some rustling in the brush and Zara looked up to see what it was. I, sadly, could not.

"I see Safi!" Zara exclaimed, running out of sight and no doubt to give her a bit wet hug.

"… Lees?" I heard Safi say after she'd taken her sopping-wet glomp. "Is that you?"

"Aiya! Germany! What's on your shoulder?" I heard China exclaim.

I moved my right hand a bit in a weak attempt at a wave. "Yup." I said unenthusiastically. "It's me."

"What happened?" Safi asked as she came into view. She was covered in rotten wood and cobwebs and there was a leaf on her head, like she'd been attacked by an old, musty tree.

"Leesy got in trooooouble!" Zara sang giddily as she skipped around Safi.

"Zara I will gag you with a spoon!" I threatened, pushing myself up against Germany's back with my left hand as I grabbed at Zara, only to miss with my right and loose grip with my left, resulting in me flopping back down unepically as Zara laughed.

I growled a bit at my smallest friend before asking Safi, "So what happened to you?"

Safi blushed a bit. "I hid inside a tree, off the ground." She said. "China had to help me down."

Before I could ask for details, we heard more rustling in the brush. This time, I pushed myself upwards against Germany's back with both hands so that I was half-planking, but I could see who was coming for myself.

Out of the brush came Alex, America, Mari and Britain. They all looked like they'd gone through the Great Pie war*, only instead of pie they were covered in…berry juice?

"Woah!" Zara exclaimed laughingly. "What happened to you guys?"

Mari wiped some berry juice out of her eye. "War." She said in a very serious tone.

"Strawberry style." Alex added, licking some berry juice off the back of her hand.

Mari looked up and saw me, a puzzled expression on her face. "Why is Lees-?"

"Dude! Hahahahaha!" America laughed obnoxiously. "What're you doing on the German dude's shoulder? This is so going on Facebook!" and to my absolute horror he whipped out an iPhone and aimed it at me as if to take a picture.

"NO!" I screamed, and in a sudden burst of strength I launched myself backwards and out of Germany's grasp. If Germany hadn't grabbed me again I would've landed flat on my back, but he did, so I was placed right back on his shoulder as before.

Luckily Britain was now fighting with America for his phone, so my home country hadn't had the chance to take an embarrassing photo of me.

Soon after that, the rest of the countries found us. France, Russia and Japan came through the brush and joined the group.

"Why is the little girl on your shoulder Germany?" Russia asked.

Before I could say something along the likes of, 'I'm not little!', France chuckled, "Ohnhonhonhon, you are in quite the vulnerable position, aren't you, ma Cherie?"

"France if you came anywhere _near_ my rear I will personally see to it that you never have children!"

Thankfully, that was enough to keep him at bay.

"Usuarry it is Italy who is on Mr. Germany's shoulder." Japan said, walking over to me, tipping his head slightly to look at me.

"Ve, you look funny lady!" Italy laughed cheerfully at me, following Japan's example, except he bent himself almost upside-down.

"Thaaaaaanks," I said sarcastically, but of course Italy didn't get sarcasm and said. "You're welcome!"

"Do you guys have any more strawberries?" Zara asked the berry-war veterans randomly.

Mari and Alex looked at each other. "I think we used them all as amo," Alex said.

"Darn!" Zara exclaimed. "I'm getting' hungry!"

Now that I thought about it, it was probably getting close to supper time, we'd all missed lunch, and my stomach rumbled at the mention of food. Germany may have felt this, or he may have just been hungry also, because he said, "Maybe ve should get somezing to eat."

"Yeah dude!" America exclaimed as he fist-pumped. "Let's all go to my place to eat yo!"

"We do _not_ want to eat your greasy fast food!" Britain retorted.

America frowned. "Hey! It's the grease that makes it taste so good, British dude!" And it's better than your food any day!"

Before this turned into an all-out brawl, Italy interrupted with, "Veeeeeee! I want pastaaaaa!'

This only made my stomach rumble more. _Pastaaaaa_, I thought dreamily. It was my _favorite food ever_, and the fact that I was already very hungry made it sound that much more wonderful.

America snapped his fingers. "I got it!" he exclaimed. "Let's go to _Il Pomodoro_!" It's an Italian restaurant at my place, and the food there is quality!"

My friends and I all perked up at this suggestion. _Il Pomodoro_ had always been one of our favorite places to go, but the food wasn't exactly cheap, so we only went there on special occasions.

Mari realized this and said, "Are you sure? That place is pretty spendy…"

America made a 'Pfft' noise and laughed. "Spendy?" he said. "I'm one of the richest frikin' countries in the world! This is nothing!"

Even though it was an Italian/American chain restaurant, the other countries seemed game. They must've been fairly used to eating other countries' foods. So we headed off.

"Uh, Germany?" I said before he had the chance to start walking. "My friends and I are going to a fancy restaurant in our pajamas, so we'll be looked at weird enough, and I'm not Italy, so could you _please_ put me down so that I don't lose _all_ of my pride?"

Germany agreed and he set me back down on my feet. All of the blood that had flowed to my brain while upside-down now rushed back down to my feet and I suddenly became very dizzy. I probably would've fallen over if Germany hadn't set a strong hand on my shoulder.

"Woah," I said, regaining my balance. "Thank you." As I started to walk off with the rest of the group, Germany kept his hand firmly on my shoulder.

"Uh, Germany?" I said again. "You can, you can let go now."

"I don't vant you running off again." He stated.

"… _Really?_" I asked, giving him a look, seriously wishing that I could cock my eyebrow like Mari.

Ja." Germany replied sternly.

I looked at him for a moment, then I sighed and continued walking.

At only a block away from _Il Pomodoro_, we could smell the garlic and baking bread in the air. While I've always been told that garlic has an unpleasant smell, I'd grown up with strong Italian influences from my father's side and so the smell had always been heavenly to me. And who doesn't love the smell of freshly-baked garlic bread when hungry?

When we walked through the door, the aroma strengthened and my mouth watered. The place had an Italian village feel to it, which I found very appealing. The building itself was not that large but there was a sort of second-story/balcony thingy to create more space.

"Hello!" said the hostess. Her mouth smiled brightly but her eyes darted over me and my pajama-ed friends. "Welcome to _Il Pomodoro_!

"Ve! Ciao Signorina!" Italy said to the lady. "Table for thirteen, per favore!"

The woman smiled and said, "Of course! Right this way!" She grabbed a bundle of menus and left her booth, motioning for us to follow. On the way to our table, she stopped to speak to some other workers. They walked ahead of us and went upstairs to the balcony-thingy. The hostess also lead us up the stairs, and we saw the other workers arranging seven small, square tables into one large, rectangular table. Our table was in a corner by a large window, which gave a great view of whatever city we were in. It wasn't big like Minneapolis or anything, and there were no landmarks that I recognized, so I figured that we were just in some sort of medium-sized city in the US. Anywho, the view was wonderful.

My friends sat down at the table, and Germany released my shoulder so that I could too. I sat with Safi to my left and Zara to my right. To Zara's right sat Alex and to Safi's left sat Mari. Alex and Mari still seemed a bit steamed form the strawberry war… Meh, they'd be better by tomorrow. They always were.

"Your waiter will be with you in a moment." The hostess stated, still smiling pleasantly, passing out the menus. "Enjoy your time at _Il Pomodoro_!" And with that she left us for her booth.

I gasped as suddenly both my hands were grabbed and pulled behind my chair. I tried to pull my hands free, but I was hopelessly outmatched in strength and something metal clicked around my wrists. I tried to move my hands, but they wouldn't move more than a few inches. "What the-?" I said, yanking my hands harder, producing a clinking-clanking sound. I craned my neck over my shoulder to see Germany standing behind me, and when I looked down I saw that my hands had been cuffed behind the chair. "Hey what's the big idea?!" I exclaimed at the culprit.

Germany looked down at me with a stern expression. "To keep you from running avay." He stated.

This made me pretty POed, and I was about to argue, but the expression on Germany's face said so clearly 'Don't mess with me' that I huffed and instead and said, "Never gonna let that go, are ya?"

"Maybe at ze end of ze night." Germany told me before walking off to find a seat.

I resisted the urge to bang my head against the table. I grumbled a bit under my breath, but I stopped when I saw Zara looking at me. Her eyes were bright with mischief and her mouth was twisted into a funny shape, no doubt with suppressed laughter.

"Hey Leesy," she said.

I eyed her warily. It was never good when she looked like this. "… What?" I finally asked.

Zara leaned in closer to me, as if to tell me a secret, but instead she lifted a finger and quickly tapped my nose. "Boop!" she chirped.

"Oh for the love of-!" I started to exclaim, but I was interrupted by another "Boop!"

I growled at Zara. I _hated_ being booped, and she knew it. She was having a great time; she laughed between boops, laughing even harder when I tried to bite her fingers. _Dang her! _I couldn't fight back, and Zara knew that she was fast enough to not get bitten. This made a giddy Zara and a POed my.

Most of the countries' eyes and smiled betrayed their amusement as they suppressed their laughter, which my friends did not even try to do. Alex and Mari were giggling as they watched, and even Safi was making snickering noises.

"Boop! Boop boop boop! Boooooop!" Zara pressed my nose for a long time before snatching her finger out of reach of my teeth and cackling.

"I _will_ bite you eventually!" I threatened, glaring at my attacker.

Zara laughed good-naturedly but thankful stopped her attacks.

I sighed with relief before looking at the other countries, who were still watching me. "Take a pic, It'll last longer," I mumbled under my breath, mostly so that America couldn't hear me.

"What was that about?" America laughed.

"Lees doesn't like being booped," Alex explained with a grin.

"She _hates_ it!" Mari giggled. "She totally despises it, and now she can't even fight back!"

"Yeah yeah yeah," I grumbled, loud enough to be heard. I glared at Germany, thinking, _This is _your_ fault!_

Germany looked at me with what might've been a suppressed smirk and amusement in his blue eyes.

Before anyone could say anything else, a man dressed like a waiter walked up to us. "Hello." He said unenthusiastically. "I'll be your waiter for today. My name is Paul." Aha! So he _was_ a waiter!

"What?" Zara asked.

"I said my name is Paul." Paul relied in the exact same tone.

"Oh, I thought you were a woman." Zara whispered to me. I quickly bit down on my tongue and squeezed my eyes shut as I tried to keep the corners of my mouth from curling upwards as I suppressed a large amount of laugher. "Carrrrrrl," I managed to whine softly and both Zara and I bit back sniggers. We looked up to see Paul glare at us for a moment before taking everyone's orders for drinks. The funny thing was since Paul didn't move around to my side of the table he didn't see that I was in handcuffs. At least we wouldn't be kicked out for handcuffing people to chairs. _Cross that one off the list of possibilities…_

"I'll be back with drinks and bread in just a moment." Paul stated monotone-ly after he'd taken our orders and walked away.

Everyone opened their menus, except me of course. "Have whatever you want guys!" America said. "My treat! Take two of everything for all I care!"

Safi looked over at me and noticed my predicament. She gave me a sympathetic smile before putting her menu between the two of us so that I could see it too.

I smiled back at her and we looked through the menu together. _Dang she's fast!_ I thought, trying to keep up with Safi. She could read a whole page in the time it took me to go halfway though, and I'm a pretty fast reader. She even retained all of that info too! Luckily, we were both thinking pasta, so we didn't have to do a whole lot of flipping.

In not too much time, Paul came back and gave us each our drinks and set a few baskets of bread, some small bowls, and a bottle of virgin olive oil along the table. "Bread is unlimited," Paul stated as if he was reading a script. "So let me know if you need more." Then he took our orders.

When he got to Alex, she said, "I'll just have a plate of plain noodles with some cheesy bread please."

Paul stared at her. "_Plain_ noodles?" he asked.

"Yes." Alex stated. She looked around the table to see some of us looking at her. Italy looked just plain horrified. "So I'm picky. Get over it."

Paul sighed and continued. When he got to America, our country exclaimed, "I'll have twenty burgers!" heroically.

Paul raised his eye brows, not looking amused. "We don't carry burgers." He stated.

"What?!" America shouted angrily. "What kind of American restaurant doesn't carry burgers?!"

"Sir, if you have a problem with our menu, you can find yourself somewhere else to eat." Paul said in a controlled-anger voice.

America huffed. "I guess I'll have the steak then," he said unenthusiastically.

When Paul got to Zara, she said, "I'll have the Parmesan Challenge!"

Paul's eyes widened. "That is a _lot_ of food. Not many can do it."

"But I'll get a free desert!"

"_If_ you finish."

"Not if, _when_."

Paul sighed again, but wrote on his notepad. "I'll be back with your food soon." And he left, walking rather quickly.

I stared at the basket of bread that had unfortunately been placed directly in front of me. It smelled wonderful, and it had come with a small bowl of oil for dipping. My stomach moaned in longing, and I tried to reach out for the bread but was stopped by the handcuffs. I watched sadly as the others took bread while I had so sit there and watch.

I was so focused on what I was missing out on that I didn't even notice when Germany got up, walked around the table and knelt down behind me. I jumped in my chair when I felt my handcuffs being messed with from behind, being a naturally jumpy person. I craned my head over my shoulder to see Germany release my right hand and lock the other cuff to the chair.

Germany looked up to see the slightly surprised expression on my face. "How can you eat without a free hand?" he reasoned.

Even though Germany was the one who'd cuffed me in the first place, I couldn't help but give him a small smile of gratitude. Then I turned back to the table and eagerly grabbed a piece of bread. I dipped in in the olive oil, let the excess oil drip off, then raised it to my mouth and took a bite. I sighed in satisfaction, enjoying the taste of freshly baked bread and olive oil on my tongue. I hadn't eaten nice like this for so long, so that and my hunger made it taste that much better.

As we waited for our food, the countries, my friends and I chatted up a storm. It was extremely interesting, talking to the countries, and they seemed to find us interesting as well. We traded stories, each one funnier than the last, having a great time! The more we talked, the more we got to know about each other, the more fun we had.

"So where did you girls come from?" Russia asked us at another point.

My friends and I looked at each other. "Well," Safi started off. "We come from-"

"Another dimension!" Alex blurted out.

"ALEX!" My friends and I yelled at her.

Alex shrugged. "Well we did! They were going to find out somehow."

"The plan was to break it to them _slowly_!" Mari said, putting her face in her hands.

I sighed and looked at the countries. They all had shocked looks on their faces. "W-What?" Japan stuttered. "We thought maybe you ferr out of an airplane! Another dimension? Are you serious?"

"Yep!" Zara said and I facepalmed. I guess she'd given up on sticking to the plan also.

"Another dimension?" asked, astonished. "Are you serious dudes? That is so cool yo! What's it like?!"

We all looked at Mari looked at Mari, who would probably have the best chance of explaining it.

"Um," Mari said. "Well, it's kind of hard to explain. The world isn't anime, like this is." She gestured to the world.

"Then…what is it?" Britain asked.

"It's…more detailed." Safi said.

Zara snapped her fingers. "Lees! Draw 'um a picture." She commanded.

"What?" I asked, taken aback. "I'm not sure if I can pull that from memory, but I can try. Does anybody have paper and a pencil?"

"Can't you pull some out of thin air?" Alex asked. "Like these guys can, and Mari did with the book earlier."

"Um, I don't know," I answered, then I looked at the countries. "How _do_ you do that?" I asked.

"Wait, you can't do that-aru?" China asked.

"… No. If we want to pull something out, it comes from our pockets, and we have to have put it in there earlier."

"… Vell zat seems limiting." Germany commented.

I nodded. "It is, but we manage…for the most part. Anyway, how do you guys do it?"

None of the countries really knew _how_ they did it, they just did it. When I asked Mari, she shrugged, wide-eyed and made a "Wff!" sound. So I decided to just try it. With my free hand, I reached behind me, thinking, _paper and pencil, paper and pencil_. To my surprise, I actually felt something in my hand. Smiling triumphantly, I pulled my hand back around to the front to look at…a rubber ducky.

"… Uh…" I said, staring at the yellow imposter. "You are _not _a pencil." I gave it a squeak before bursting into laughter to be joined by my friends and the countries. "Here, ducky," I said, handing the duck to Zara. "Have a ducky." Earning another bout of laughter from her.

"Ve, I did not know you were a duck!" Italy exclaimed at Zara, which made her only laugh harder.

"Long story," she said, and before she could elaborate, Paul and some more workers walked up to our table with huge platters filled with food in their hands. Even though I was starving, we were having such a good time that it'd seemed like hardly any time had passed at all. Not that I would've liked to postpone the food; Oh no, I was more than happy to except it now.

My eyes widened as my dish was placed in front of me. It was a huge, heaping plate of fettuccine alfrado, with a breaded chicken breast and shrimp, all topped with a dusting of parmesan cheese. My mouth literally hurt from watering so much. I inhaled the aroma of my dish, eyes rolling back in pleasure of the tantalizing smell. It took every ounce of my self-control to not dig in and wait for everyone to be served.

Zara was presented with her Parmesan Challenge, and she licked her lips with anticipation while my eyes bulged out of my head. The heap of pasta was _huge_! It'd take maybe _two_ big guys to eat it all…or one Zara.

Once everyone started, so did I. Sadly, I couldn't use the fun round little spoon thing with my fork that you sometimes get at Italian restaurants to spin up your noodles with since I only had one free hand, but I managed. I quickly spun up a forkful and popped it in my mouth. "Mmmm," I moaned softly as I sat back in my chair, chewing slowly and enjoying the blissfully delicious food. As soon as I swallowed, I filled my fork with more. I ate quickly like this for a while, satisfying my hunger before I slowed down and could focus on something other than my food.

This is when I figured out that Mari and Alex were fighting. I had completely missed the cause of the argument, as I have a tendency to enter, exit and reenter group conversations at weird times, but I figured it had something to do with the strawberry-war from before.

A plain noodle sailed through the air, hit Mari in the face and stuck there. A very POed Mari stood up from her chair, grabbed her untouched plate of spaghetti, walked over to Alex, and promptly dumped it on her head. "Waite!" she called to Paul, who was nearby but somehow hadn't seen what she'd just done. "May I have another order of spaghetti please?"

Paul sighed, wrote on his notepad before walking back down the stairs.

Once he was gone, Alex launched herself at Mari and knocked her to the ground. Yet another dust cloud ensued.

"Guys!" Safi yelled when she thought that it'd gone on long enough. "Do you _really_ want to get kicked out?"

The stopped fighting and looked at me. Then they looked at each other. They stayed frozen like that for a while. Then Alex picked the first noodle she'd thrown off Mari's face with her finger and popped it in her mouth. Mari didn't move and Alex froze as well. Suddenly, they burst out laughing, hugged and walked back to their seats.

The countries stared at them, but Safi, Zara and I just shrugged our shoulders and continued eating. This was normal behavior among my friends and I; making up suddenly for no discernible reason. Maybe it was because we hated being mad at each other? Meh, it didn't really matter.

My short attention span moving on, I looked around the table, noticing some funny occurrences. Japan and China seemed to be having a hard time with their forks, being used to eating with chopsticks after all, and found it easier to instead use two forks in a chopstick-like fashion. America was eating his steak, grumbling about the lack of burgers while chewing, a very messy process indeed. I couldn't look at _that_ for very long. Italy and Zara were going absolutely bonkers, shoving pasta down their throats, trying each other's, and even stealing some from the people around them; all when Zara was supposed to eat that huge plate of pasta. Meh, she'd manage. Safi sat quietly next to me, not saying anything as she ate he food. She never really talked much while she ate, no reason, she just did it. China however did not know this and her silence bothered him. "Are you alright-aru?" he asked her.

Safi glanced up from her food, nodding briefly at him before returning to her food.

China's brow furrowed in confusion. "Why are you not talking?" he asked persistently.

"Ahem," Mari cleared her throat after, swallowing some food before saying, "Safi doesn't talk much while she's eating. It's just a quirk of hers, right Safi?"

Safi nodded again, not bothering to look up from her food.

China still didn't look convinced. "Say _something_-aru!" he pleaded.

Safi swallowed her food, wiped her mouth with a napkin, looked up at him, smiled and said, "Hi China!" cutely and went right back to her food.

I chuckled at China's surprised expression, then I saw something reaching for my pasta out of the corner of my eye. "No!" I said, slapping away the offending fork with my own. "Bad girl!"

"Aw!" Zara whined. "Leesyyyyy!"

"It's my pasta and you can't have it!'

"Pleeeeease?"

"No."

"Pretty pleeeeease?"

"No!"

"Pretty pretty pleeeeeease?"

"NEIN!"

Every one of the countries stopped eating and looked at me, including Germany, who was just plain staring at me.

"… what?" I asked, not realizing what I'd just said.

"You just spoke in Mr. Germany's native ranguage." Japan explained.

"Ve!" Italy exclaimed. "You sounded like Germany when he's angry!"

"… Oh!" I said, just now realizing what I'd said. "I just- I mean- I didn't-"

"She does that," Zara explained with a laugh for me. "When she wants to say no and she _really_ means it, she'll say it in German."

"And it's even funnier when she shouts it in public!" Alex giggled.

"She meant no disrespect," Mari added quickly.

"It's just a quirk of hers." Safi said with a smile. "Right Lees?"

"… Right." I finished lamely. I looked in Germany's direction but was too embarrassed to look him in the eyes. "I just think German's a cool language, that's all." To give myself something to do, and to draw the attention away from me, I continued eating my pasta. Once everyone's conversations stared up again, I sighed with relief and tackled the task of cutting up my chicken with one hand. It was difficult, and I had to use my fork, but the chicken was wonderfully tender, so I managed.

I was slowing down, filling up with food. Zara meanwhile had been steadily working away at her Parmesan Challenge, when she hadn't been laughing or stealing other people's pasta. She was about 3/4ths of the way done, and she wasn't slowing down.

I chuckled at the sight of such a small girl eating so much food, but I had no doubts in her. Zara frikin' ate like a pro linebacker. Knowing her, she'd have no trouble finishing both her pasta _and_ her free desert. I hummed Eye of the tiger in encouragement, not that she needed it.

It was getting towards the end of the night and most of the countries and my friends were just finishing up their food. I was _full_; full to the brim and was _tired. _Some of it was because of the food, but most of it was because we'd had a long, eventful day and it was getting late. Because we were in public, I stayed sitting up, but what I wanted to do was go find a place to lie down. It seemed to me that I should be ashamed for eating so much. Weren't girls supposed to eat dainty foods like salad? I hated salad. Give me real food any day. I felt fat, immobile and exhausted. _Is this what being pregnant feels like?_ My groggy mind wondered. Then I realized that there was still about a forkful of fettuccine on my plate. I'd eaten everything; the chicken the shrimp, the rest of the pasta, everything but that little bit. I groaned inwardly and lifted my fork. It wasn't enough to take in a box and there was no way I was just going to waste this amazing food, no matter how full I was. I slowly scooped up the remaining noodles and brought them to my mouth. I took as deep a breath as I thought I could manage and ate it. Swallowing, I lifted my fork a bit and said "Yay," softly to no one in particular in 'celebration' of my accomplishment. I hadn't the energy to do anything more.

"YEAH!" I didn't even jump in my chair as Zara yelled in triumph. "I DID IT!" she exclaimed, jumping up from her chair and dancing wildly in celebration.

I and several other people gaped at Zara in astonishment. First, she'd actually been able to _eat_ that massive plate of pasta. I couldn't be prouder. Second, she still had the energy and mobility to jump up and dance.

"Ve, good job bella," Italy said sleepily as he began dozing off against Germany.

Paul walked over to us and stared at Zara's empty plate. "You actually managed to eat that?" he wondered aloud.

"That's right Paulie!" Zara exclaimed as she continued dancing. "I'm getting' a free desert! All right!"

Paul sighed, clearly not appreciating the nickname. "All t=right," he said. "What would you like?"

"The fudge-stuffed brownies!' Zara proclaimed as she sat back down. Then she looked around and saw many more empty plates and tired faces around the table and added, "To go, please."

Paul nodded and handed America the bill before walking off to get Zara's prize.

America took the bill and smiled at it. "I'll leave an extra-large tip; poor Paulie deserves it." To which we all agreed.

"*sigh* Paulie…" I heard Safi and Alex mumble in unison, pretty much asleep.

Everyone forced themselves up from the table in preparation to leave, some forcing each other to their feet. I tried to rise also, but the handcuffs kept me to the chair. "Germanyyyyyyyy," I said, moaning a bit as I yanked on the cuffs.

Germany looked up at me, shrugged Italy off him and walked over to me. "Had enough from one night?" he asked.

"Mmhm," I was so groggy I didn't even bother to give a smart reply. I just let Germany undo the cuffs, mumbled a thank you, stood up and walked with my friends and the countries towards the stairs.

Paul came up to us and asked for the bill. America handed it to him with a pat on the back, a knowing smirk on his face, but he didn't say anything.

Once we'd almost made it down the stairs, we heard Paul scream, "Oh my gosh! Guys! Look at this tip!" he appeared over the balcony, beaming hugely…and maybe tears in his eyes? "Thank you! Thank you sir! You have no idea what this means to me!"

Our country laughed. "Peace out dude!" he said, holding up a peace sign as he held the door for the rest of us to walk through.

Once we were out of the building, Britain said, "My gosh America! Just how much did you give the man?"

America smiled and looked over his shoulder at _Il Pomodoro_. Sounds of Paul's celebration could be heard from outside. "Just enough," he said.

The countries took us back to our new house. My friends and I were nearly falling asleep on our feet, so once we got in the door we walked directly into the unfurnished living room and flopped down into a pile on the carpet. Zara staggered over to the fridge and put her fudge-stuffed brownies in. I'd been able to convince her _not_ go and get a sugar-high right before we went to bed. Then she walked over to our pile and flopped down on top.

The countries watched us in amusement, but we were so tired we didn't really care.

"You ladies seem tired," Britain said, smiling kindly down at us as he stated the obvious. "So we'll let you sleep. There'll be a surprise here for you in the morning." He tossed a key to me, which I just barely caught. "Be sure to lock up. Sleep well." He said and began to usher the other countries towards the doors.

I groaned, wedging myself out from under my friends, staggered to my feet and followed the countries to the door. "G'nite," I said groggily. "Thanks for supper, and the house, and the breakfast, and so on, from all of us."

The countries smiled at me as they walked out the door. Germany was the last to leave. Seeing him made me remember something.

"Thanks for uncuffing me Germany!" I shouted after him as he walked down the path. "Guten nacht!"

Germany paused, turning to look at me funny. Then he gave a small smile. "Bitte schön." He said before turning back around and walked after the other countries.

I stared after him for a moment, my mouth open a bit. Slowly, I closed the door, locked it, and leaned against it. Did he just…smile?

"Whadid he say Leesy?" she asked sleepily from the pile as I walked over.

"Idk," I mumbled, nestling into my mound of 'migas. "I only got to take one quarter of Germany in sixth grade. But I think he actually smiled! Did you see that?"

Zara didn't answer; she was already asleep.

I managed a small smile. I sighed contentedly, snuggled down, yawned "I love you guys," randomly, and soon followed Zara's example.


	6. He made me mad

Germany scowled down at me, seemingly unfazed by the fact that I'd just slammed into him. Like I said before, he did not look happy. "Vhat are you doing in here?!" he yelled at me.

I crossed my arms and scowled back from my place on the ground. "You didn't _really_ think we were gonna just wait outside for hours, did you?"

I countered. "I mean, it _is_ us. We're gonna find a way in."

The big angry German was just about to yell something back, but he was interrupted by Austria yelling "Germany!"

The Austrian spazz stalked up to Germany, maybe even _more_ pissed off than the later, if that was possible. "Do you know somezing about zese _human _girls being in here?!"

Germany facepalmed. "Yes Austria," he growled. "Ve found zem, zey know our secret, unt zey vere _supposed_ to vait _outside_!" Germany removed his hand and glared at me.

I very childishly blew a raspberry at him. Then I felt hands under my arms and I was dragged away. I twisted around to see Safi with my left arm and Mari with my right arm.

"Come on Lees. We don't want to make the blissed off German any more blissed off do we?"" Safi reasoned, using her own personal lingo.

"I'm not afraid of him!" I struggled a bit.

"We know Lees," Mari said. "You're not afraid of anyone. That's why we have to step in and be your common sense."

… Yeah… They were probably right. So I let them drag me back over to Alex and Zara.

Germany and Austria had missed this whole exchange because once Germany had said, "Zey know our secret," Austria had screamed "ZEY KNOW OUR SECRET?!" and had started spazzing out at Germany.

Being the bipolar weirdo that I am, I felt sorry for the angry German who'd just been yelling at me a moment ago. Austria seemed like a nuisance. Then I saw that Switzerland still had his gun pointed at my friends and I switched again. I stood up, and forced the gun upwards so that It was not pointed over our heads. "Don't shoot my friends." I said.

That pissed him off. He pressed down with his gun, fighting against my upward thrust, looking like he wanted to shoot _me_, when Mari stepped in. "What our friend _means_ to say is that we are no threat and we'd prefer not to die today."

Switzerland blinked. "Die?" he asked, then his face changed to realization. "Oh yeah. Humans aren't immortal." He looked reluctant about it, but he lowered his gun.

"Immortal?" Safi asked.

Switzerland nodded. "Yes," he said. "There isn't much that can kill a country. Britain's taken both a rocket and a shooting star to the head."

"How did that-" Istarted to say, but I was interrupted.

"Yup! That's right!" Zara said overenthusiastically. "No immortal countries here! Just us humans!"

"Exactly!" We turned to see a still mad Austria marching up to us. A tired-looking Germany followed him. "Humans cannot know our secret! Zey are not trustworthy!"

"Hey!" Alex protested "We're very trustworthy!"

"Zen vhy didn't you stay outside like you vere told?" Austria countered, shifting his glasses.

"Because we can't wait for that long!"

"Zere! You just admitted to not being able to do as you are told!"

"Hey hey HEY!" a familiar voice said, and everyone turned to see America racing towards us, trailed by the other countries we knew. "Stop harpin' on my citizens Austrian dude!" he said, putting himself in a dynamic pose between us and Austria, who took a step back in indignant surprise. America looked back at us. "Fear not dudettes!" he said with a grin. "The hero's come to your rescue!"

"America!" Austria yelled. "You are on zis too?!"

"We all are," Britain said, gesturing to the other countries who knew us.

"Vhat vere you all zinking?!" Austria spazzed. "Humans cannot be trusted viz a secret of zis magnitude!"

"On the contrary," Japan spoke up. "Quite a few other humans know our secret."

"Like who?!"

"Our bosses."

Austria sputtered angrily, clearly taken aback.

"Wait, bosses?" Mari asked. "You guys are countries but you have bosses?"

"Of course!" America replied. "Your leaders! Like Obama's my boss right now."

"Ooooooo," Zara said. "I get it!"

"And if our bosses can be trusted," Britain reasoned. "Why can't these girls?"

"Because…because…" Austria sputtered. "Zey're children!"

"Woah! Hang on! Back it up a second," Alex said. "Okay, we are _not_ children. We're all adults in our country and that makes us full citizens of the world! We can be trusted!"

"But how do five humans suddenly know our secret?" Austria asked, turning to the other countries.

They explained what happened, and Austria had a hard time believing the falling from the sky part, but he eventually excepted the story.

"I'm not so sure about you giving them a house," Switzerland stepped in. "what if they're gone tomorrow? Wouldn't that be an awful waste of money?"

"But we don't know if we're ever going back," Zara said, unusually un-peppy in her statement.

The countries looked at us, some on sympathy, some in dread, some in both.

"Ve! Don't be sad pretty lady!" Italy said as he glomped Zara. "You can't be happy if you are sad!"

Zara smiled, even though the Italian was probably squeezing the life out of her. "Okay!" she said happily.

"yay!" Italy exclaimed. He let go of her only to grab her hands and start dancing with Zara, who giggled and danced along. None of my friends were fazed. That's just Zara. None of the countries seemed fazed. That was probably just Italy.

"The point is," Chine said, turning back to Switzerland. "We made permanent accommodations for the because we do not know how long they'll be staying-aru."

Before anyone could respond, someone said, "I knew it!" It was the Italian guy who we'd heard while we were inside the closet. He had dark brown hair and an olive and his eyes were hazel brown. He had wild long curl on the right side of his head, like Italy. He wore a teal suit with a pink tie. "I knew I'd heard girls in here! I told you so!" he yelled in the face of the man behind him.

The man had somewhat curly brown hair, green eyes, lightly tanned skin. He wore a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, along with brown pants and a red tie. "So you did," he said, not at all fazed by the rude Italian. He must've been the Spaniard we'd heard. "Now what are all these chicas bonitas doing in here?" He looked back at us. "Oh, excuse me, senoritas. Soy Espana." He said with a deep bow.

"Spain," I said quickly to my French friends, Mari Alex and Safi.

"Speak in English will ya?" the Italian protested. "I seriously doubt any of them speak stupid Spanish!"

"Hablamos espanol!" I protested. "Ella y mi," I pointed at Zara, who was still dancing with Italy. "And who are you?" I switched to English to ask the taken-aback Italian.

"Ve! That's my big brother Romano!" Italy said happuily as he continued dancing.

"Romano?" Alex asked, her eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Never heard of that country."

Romano's face became as red as a tomato. "Of course you have!" he fumed. "Haven't you ever heard of the nation of Italy?"

"Well yeah," Alex said. 'But he's right there," she pointed at Italy, who was _still _dancing.

"Italy! Stop dancing already!" Germany snapped.

"Ah! Yes Germany!" Italy snapped into a salute, to which Germany sighed. "To answer your question, I'm the Northern half of Italy, and my big brother's the Southern half! Big brother calls me Veneziano, but most just call me Italy!"

Once again, before anyone could say anything, yet another person came in. It was Lithuania, his arms filled with stuff, and he scrambled up to Russia.

When I saw what he was holding, I thought, _Oh no_,

"Mr. Russia," he said, trying to hold onto all his stuff. "I did my best to get the things you wanted. I looked up what a Mormon is and I made this disco ball," He held up a disco ball with the Mormon symbol painted on it. "Some caramel yak," He held up little chocolates stuffed with caramel that was shaped like yaks. "You can throw away these slacks when you're done with them," he held up a pair of slacks. "And here's your painting." And oh good gray greif he had an actual oil painting of clowns storming the beach at Normandy!

America burst out laughing. "That's totally from Black Friday Shopping Prank yo!" he yelled. "I didn't knjow you watched American YouTube Russian dude!"

"Do not be silly Lithuania," Russia said. "I did not tell you to get these things."

Poor Lithuania looked so confused. "B-But, you told me to," he stammered. "Hey, your voice sounds better now sir,"

As if on cue, all the countries turned towards my friends and me.

My face went hot. "Um," I said, fiddling with my fingers. "We saw Lithuania while we were looking around, and he sensed that we were there. He thought maybe it was Russia, so I , um, I imitated Russia's voice and told him to get those things," I said quickly.

"How did you do that?!" China exclaimed.

"Well, I uh, l-like this: Lithu-" I stopped to clear my throat from its frightened squeak. "Lithuania I am needing this and that," I said in my Russia-imitation voice.

"Th-that's the voice I heard!" Lithuania said, pointing a shaking finger at me.

Russia walked over to me. _Oh crap_, I thought. Russia seemed nice enough, but something about him being at such a close range with me seriously set me off. I glanced nervously up at his face. He was smiling, so that was a good sign…right?

"That is a very good try," Russia said, "But you need to speak more from the gut." He tapped my stomach with his hand for emphasis, to which a bit back a squeak. No, I didn't want him to know that I was afraid. I took a deep, shaky breath.

"Dobroye utro. I am Russia. I am being pleased to meet you."

The other country's eyes widened, especially Lithuania. Had I said something that Russia would find insulting? Did I go to far with the broken English? I gulped as I awaited Russia's response.

Russia's smile got a little wider. "That is much better!" he said, putting a hand on my head. He pressed down with an unbelievable amount of strength for such a casual pose, and I wavered under the great pressure. "You sound more like me now. Do you do other voices?"

I gulped. "Y-Yeah," I stuttered. My plan to not show fear wasn't working. "I do lots of accents, but not right now."

"Okay," Russia said good naturedly, taking his pressing hand off my head and giving me what was probably supposed to be a small shove towards my friends, but it came out with a lot of force and my friends had to catch me. I clung to my friends, hating how cowardly I was acting but not being able to help it, and I trying to stop shaking.

"Correction," Mari said quietly so that only my friends heard. "Lees is afraid of one person: Russia."

"B-But where were you?" Lithuania asked us. As upset as he was, I sensed some pity for me and my encounter with Russia. "I didn't see you anywhere."

I looked at Zara; it had been her idea after all, and I didn't wasn't to take any more of the blame.

"I found an open air duct," Zara explained easily. "We decided to crawl through it and we found the room you were in."

"So wait, you were in the walls?" Lithuania asked, eyes wide and trembling like we were part of some sort of horror video game.

"The ceiling actually," Alex put in helpfully.

"And, we are sorry," Mari said and we added our earnest agreements. "We were just having fun; we didn't mean to cause you trouble."

"Oh," Lithuania seemed surprised. "I-It's okay; I'm used to running errands and stuff like that."

After a long, awkward pause, France said, "Well it sounds like you ladies have had an interesting two hours."

"Two hours?!" I exclaimed, looking at Mari. She checked her watch. "Yep," she said. "We got here 'round noon and it's two o'clock now."

"Wow," Safi said quietly. "Time really flies when you're dodging people."

"Which is why we need to get back to the meeting," Switzerland stated. "Humans or no humans, there are still things we need to discuss."

"I am not letting unqualified humans into our meeting!" Austria put his foot down.

"Ve! Come on Mr. Austria!" Italy pleaded, latching onto the man. "Can't the pretty ladies come with us?"

"Austria?" Safi spoke up before Austria could reply. "You're Austria?"

The spazzy country looked down at Safi. "Yes, vhat's it to you?"

Safi's eyes lit up. "Music," she said wistfully. "I love your music! Beethoven was a genius!"

Austria's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You like classical music?" he asked incredulously.

Safi nodded, smiling. "Egmont, Sonata Pathétique, and Piano Sonata are my favorites."

My eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Wait," I said softly, looking towards Germany, who once again had his face in his hand. "Wasn't Beethoven Ger-"

Germany looked up at me, head still in his hand. He gave his head the slightest shake 'no'. It must've been a sore subject between the two, so I kept my mouth shut.

"… Vell," Austria said after a moment of thought. I guess it vouldn't be so bad if zey came..."

Safi beamed. "Thank you sir," she said politely. She grabbed Zara's hand to ensure that she stayed quiet and polite.

As everybody started heading for the meeting room. I shook my head and smiled. Leave it to the shy one to save us.

Germany was about to protest, but he looked at my friends and I with a tired look, and sighed. I looked at him pitifully. We were a handful. Maybe I should apologize… Nah.

The countries lead us to the meeting room. It was a different room than the one we'd spent the night in. It was smaller and the table was shorter. The countries sat at the far end of the table, with Germany at the head. That made sense; he'd be good at keeping order. My friends and I sat at the other end. Because I was the last to walk in, I had to sit at the opposite end of the table. I sighed and took my place. Zara and Mari sat to my right, and Safi and Alex sat to my left.

The meeting started again, but it wasn't about anything interesting. My friends and I having short attention spans, soon became very bored. Mari started drawing smiley faces with some paper and a pencil she'd found. Safi and Zara had found an old eraser and we were now flicking pieces of it at each other across the table. Alex was watching them intently, keeping track of how many erasers made direct hits.

At one point, I saw Mari look over at Safi and Zara. She studied what they were doing before taking a piece of eraser for herself. She took her aim and fired. The eraser bit flew over Safi's head and hit the dead center of the thermostat behind her on the wall. Safi and Alex had turned to see the bull's-eye happen, and now they turned back to Mari, wide-eyed. Mari went back to drawing smiley faces, a self-satisfied smile on her face.

I plugged my nose to hold back a snort. Mari was the furthest, most accurate flicker I'd ever seen. It was not smart to challenge her.

Unable to take part in the eraser war myself, being at the head of the table, I placed my palms on top of each other on the table and rested my chin on my hands. I let my eyes wander around the table, tuning out what the countries said, only focusing on their faces. Anime faces are so expressive! It must be hard to get away with a lie in an anime.

Needless to say, it was entertaining to watch. My eyes landed on Germany. He sat across the long table from me, watching the other countries debate with stern silence.

I studied his face… He was not bishie, I decided. In fact, none of them were. They didn't have the Twilight-like, girly intensity signature to the pretty-boy manga characters. No, their eyes reminded me of moe, but they were adult men, which I'd never heard of.

My eyes narrowed as I focused in on Germany, and I wondered… How would he look with a mustache? You know, a big bushy _moustache_, like some _hipster_ at an art school party*… Where'd that come from? I didn't know, but I began forming a picture in my mind…

"PFFT!" I couldn't stop my outburst at the image my brain had formulated. I hid my head in my arms, trying desperately to make my shoulders stop shaking form the laughter bubbling up inside. Because I knew that I'd been heard, I kept my head down until I heard the countries continue on with their meeting.

I was tapped on the shoulder. "Lees," I heard Mari whisper. "What was so funny?"

I bit my lip to keep the laughter from coming back. "Tell you later," I whispered back.

A few minutes later, my head still hidden in my arms, I heard the sound of a pencil tapping the table rhythmically. I looked up to see that the culprit was America, who was barely aware of what he was doing. That rhythm gave me an idea…

"Ugh," I groaned softly. "What, Is that mysterious tapping noise?"** I asked in a deeper yet nasally voice, lifting my head a bit and talking only loud enough form my friends to hear.

They looked at me quizzically.

"Not over here," I muttered, looking to my right. "Not over there," I looked to my left. "Hm," I turned back to the middle. After a pause, I said, "… Kindof… catchy." I gave a sly smile as I looked at my friends.

They got the message and grinned with anticipation.

I took a quick look around and turned to the middle again, before starting to sing, "Snape, Snape, Severus Snape. Snape, Snape, Severus Snape."

"Dumbledore!" Safi exclaimed quietly but giddily as I continued singing.

After two more rounds, Mari started singing, "Ron, Ron, Ron WEAsley," Along with us in a higher voice.

Soon, after another round, Zara started singing "… Hermione… Hermione… Hermione, Hermione, Hermione."

"Harry Potter! Harry Potter! Oo!" Alex butted in like she was supposed to. "Harry Potter! Harry Potter that's me!"

We continued doing this for one more round, then Alex and I stood up from our chairs abruptly and everyone else stopped. We argued, "Snape!" "Harry!" nine times at a speed we'd never been able to accomplish back in our world, getting angrier and angrier, then Safi popped up between us and exclaimed, "Dumbledooooooooooore!"

Zara strangely floated by behind us, saying, "Herrrrrrrrmione!"

The whole thing was started up again by Safi's "Dumbledore!" Then everybody did the same thing as before, except for Alex, who said, "I'm Harry Potter," over and over again.

We did this for two more rounds, before singing all together, "Singin' our song, all day long at Hoooooooogwaaaarts!"

"I've found the source of the tapping!" Mari exclaimed. "It's a pipe bomb!"

"Yaaaaay!" Alex and Zara said happily as Safi and I turned to each other. ON an unspoken cue, we all made exploding noises and ducked under the table.

The tapping had stopped, and we heard America say in a deeper voice, "Muahahahahahaha!" _Oh gosh he was in on this too! This is great!_ I thought happily. He started tapping his pencil on the table again and sang, "Voldemort, Voldemort, oo Volde Volde Volde Voldemort!"

"Wa dup wa wa wa!" I imitated the funny noise as I popped back up. The rest of my friends popped up also and we all started laughing. America was laughing too, and Britain had his hand over his face in a desperate attempt to keep silent. Italy was laughing too, though I doubt he know what was going on. Romano was scowling at anyone laughing. Spain laughed at probably our sheer silliness. Lithuania looked frightened and confused at why we were laughing. China looked just plain confused. Russia was smiling happily. France didn't look like he quite got it wither, but he laughed a bit. Japan seemed confused also, but he had a small, amused smile. Switzerland didn't look happy, Austria looked even less happy, but the person who was least happy was Germany.

It occurred to me that our little happy fun time may have escalated in volume.

Germany stood up abruptly, and everyone went silent. He walked around the table and began to stalk towards us.

Some of the other countries tried to stop Germany, to reason with him into letting us off easier, but he took no notice of them and continued towards us. Towards _me_. I started it, I ended it, and now I was going to _get_ it.

I stood up, jaw set, shoulders back, ready to face him. _No fear._

The _very_ angry German stopped right in front of me, glowering down at my face.

I hated how much taller he was than me. I was behind by a good seven inches at least, but that didn't stop me from looking him in the eyes. _No shame._

Germany wavered for a moment, as if surprised that I was defiantly facing him, but then he decided that he didn't care. "VHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs into my face.

I squeezed my eyes shut and grit my teeth, the force of his shouting blowing my hair out of my face.

"CAN'T YOU DO ANYZING AS YOU'RE TOLD?!" Germany continued. "VE ASK YOU TO VAIT OUTSIDE FOR UNT YOU FIND A VAY IN! YOU SEND SOMEONE OFF ON A VILD GOOSE CHASE UNT YOU INTERUPT OUR MEETING! YOU DELAY OUR MEETING, CAUSE DISTURBANCES UNT BRING IT TO A HALT! VHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?!"

Once he had finished, I opened my eyes to look with his again.

He'd done it. He'd made me mad.

My brain was formulating a thousand different comebacks; starting with 'Are you finished?' and ending with many swear words.

"Adaliz," I heard my friends say behind me, but I thrust my palm backwards to silence them. I could handle him.

I took a deep breath, _No retreat_, shut my eyes and screamed, "**DON'T YELL AT ME!**"

The room was silent, but I didn't dare to open my eyes yet.

"THERE WAS NO WAY WE WERE GOING TO WAIT OUTSIDE FOR THAT LONG!" I continued. "WE ALREADY APPOLOGIZED TO LITHUANIA AND WE DIDN'T MEAN TO INTERUPT YOUR MEETING! WE DIDN'T TRY TO DELAY ANYTHING, I DIDN'T MEAN TO LAUGH OUT LOUD AND WE STARTED SINGING BECAUSE WE WERE BORED! AND ABOVE ALL, I'M SORRY!"

I opened my eyes, composed myself and looked at Germany expectantly.

Germany's anger had left his face to be replaced by complete and utter shock. "… Did…you just say you're sorry?" he asked incredulously after a long pause.

I gave a nod. "Yes." I said simply. "I said I'm sorry."

Another long silence ensued, in which I kept myself neatly calm and composed.

Germany stared at me as if he still didn't believe that he'd heard me right. "… I…except your apology." He said, not at all sure of what he was saying.

I gave another nod. "Thank you." I said, then I turned on my heel to face my friends, who all looked shocked but were also suppressing smiles. "I suggest that we go outside and wait for the countries to finish their meeting." I said simply.

After yet another pause, my friends nodded and we proceeded to exit the meeting room in complete silence. We went down the halls and out the main entrance of the building. We filed outside and I shut the door behind us.

The silence broke. We all fell into a laughing heap in the grass.

"Did you see his face?!"

"I know! He was all like, 'OMIGOSH I GOT TOLD OFF MY S GIRL!'"

"It was so great! And the apology just made it that much better!"

"He was sooooo surprised! I doubt he'll ever yell at you again!"

"He'd better not!" I laughed. "Or I'll just do it again!"

This made us all fall into a laughing fit again. I'd gone from being super mad to laughing my butt off. Cool.

"Red rover red rover let Zara come over!" Alex and I chanted in unison. That's right. We were playing red rover like a bunch of elementary kids. But honestly, who cares?

Zara ran, yelling hysterically at Alex and I. She didn't break our arms apart, but she pushed us with enough force to make us fall down on top of her. We laughed in our tangled up heap and Safi and Mari laughed as they came over to untangle us.

Just then, the countries came out. They were all very quiet, like they were still in shock. The countries we'd only met today, Romano, Spain, Lithuania, Switzerland, and Austria all left, leaving us with the first eight countries. They stared at us and we stared at them. Germany watched me with an unreadable face.

I smiled and got to my feet. This couldn't get any more awkward than it already was, so I decided to do what I could to end it. I walked right up to Germany. We stared at each other for a few second, then I said, "Hey," I held out my hand. "No hard feelings?"

Germany stared at my hand, as did the other countries. What would he do? Would he start yelling at me again? Would he reject my peace offering? Then he took it. "Nein." He said, giving my hand a firm shake. "I must admit," he continued. "I've never quite had an encounter like zat before." In his eyes I saw a newfound respect for me, as if he'd silently said, 'Well played.'

I smiled.

_*Okay, obviously most of you super Hetalia fans caught that, but for anyone who is not as insanely obsessed as me, watch this. I highly recommend watching the whole thing, (tis very funny!), but if you're in a hurry, skip ahead to 1:07_

_YouTube "Hetalia: Axis Powers on DVD 9/14/10 - Romano - Episode Clip"_

_** THIS IS FUNNY EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT A HARRY POTTER FAN!_

_YouTube "Potter Puppet Pals: They Mysterious Ticking Noise"_


	7. Hide&Seek

_YO!_**_ So ima start doing review comments so that I can respond to you bros all at once! Yaaaaaay!_**

**_Sarpndo: Lol I figured that since we Americans are so obsessed with YouTube (*raises hand* Guilty as charged.) why wouldn't Alfred be?_**

**_JCScannell: Thnx! And I do appreciate the input on my grammar. I usually try to pay attention to good grammar, but I've got a limited amount of time to transfer my story from my notebook to my computer, so sometimes I'm pretty rushed :P_**

**_TheAmericanNinja: Yay! I LOVE it when I can make someone's day better! ISN'T THE VIDEO GREAT!? I firkin love Potter Puppet Pals! Lol and yeah, Safi's got her own vocab XD_**

**_Atlantic Jewel: Wow! You have crazy insane dreams just like Safi! XD Glad to hear that my story's on your mind! Oh and while the painting does not actually exist, but someone on devianart made their own interpretation of it here: art/Circus-Clowns-Storming-the-Beach-at-Normandy-272451694_**

**_Unt now, ze moment you've all been vaiting for-! *Germany* "STOP COPYING MY ACCENT!" *Me* _**_DON'T YELL AT ME!_**_ Enjoy!_**

Thankfully, the awkwardness was gone now. I hate awkwardness. It's so…awkward.

"Well," Britain said. "What do we do now?"

After another long pause, which only brought more awkwardness, Zara suddenly did the unexpected (well, unexpected for a normal person, expected for Zara) and screamed "**HIDE!**"

Not hesitation for even a moment, my friends and I spun 180's and ran at top speed for the nearby woods. Now, I know that you're not supposed to look back, but I did anyways. The countries hadn't moved from where they stood, no doubt frozen in shock. Good! This would give us a good head start!

In case you didn't get any of that, we had decided to play hide & seek, (no we don't care that we're too old for it), and we hadn't exactly told the countries. Heck, we hadn't told the countries at all!

Because I didn't want to trip and fall and fail epically, I turned my head back around and grinned hugely as my friends and I sprinted for the woods.

**Zara's POV**

_Yay it's time to play hide and seek! Gotta find a place to hide! Gotta hide gotta hide gotta-birdie!_ I looked up and saw a fat little white bird sitting on a branch. It was really loud and annoying, saying, "CHAPCHAPCHAPCHAPCHAPCHAPCHAP !" over and over again!

"Shh!" I said, holding a finger up to my lips and shushed very loudly. "Don't give me away!"

"CHAPCHAPCHAPCHAPCHAPCHAPCHAP !" the bird kept going on and on and on. It didn't even stop to listen to me! "Hel-lo? Rude!" I said, but the annoying bird kept making weird noises, so I decided to ignore it and to keep going.

I looked around for a place to hide, but there was nothing good! I was just about to yell for my 'mom' Safi when I noticed that my sock was wet. I looked down and saw that I'd stepped into a small pond. Perfect! I could hide in here! So I jumped in.

"Brr!" I exclaimed, shivering a bit. I was about to go hide underwater, but then I remembered that I wouldn't be able to breathe anymore. _Dang! I wish I really was a mermaid! How cool would that be?! _But sadly, it wasn't true, so I'd have to use my smarticles instead. I looked around the pond and found some of those hollow reeds that cartoons always breathe through in cartoons! _Perfect!_ I plucked up one of the reeds and stuck in my mouth. It tasted funny. I tried to breathe through the reed, but it was like breathing through a straw! I spat the reed out. What was I going to do now?

Just then, I heard the countries making their way through the woods. They were getting closer by the second.

_Oh crap! They're here already! _I panicked. I took a huge gulp of air and ducked under.

I don't know how long I was under for, but it seemed like forever. My lungs were about to burst, so I had no choice but to come up for air. I sprang to the surface, sputtering and splashing. It occurred to me that if I'd have been quieter about it and I might've been able to stay hidden… OH WELL!

I coughed and rubbed the water from my eyes. The first thing I saw was Italy leaning over the edge, looking at me with those weird closed eyes of his and a goofy smile on his face. "Ve! I found you bella!" he said happily.

I don't know why he kept calling me Bella, cuz I'm pretty sure my name's Zara… Of course I could always be wrong. "Not until you catch me!" I yelled, paddling away.

Italy reached out to touch me, but his coordination (BIG WORD!) must've been as bad as mine because he fell right into the water! "Ve! Help me! Ima drowning!" he screamed, floundering around in the water, arms waving spasmodically.

"Italy!" I giggled, paddling over to him. "Just stand up!" I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him to his feet. I gasped, surprised as Italy suddenly clutched onto my shoulders. The next thing I knew, I was holding him Scooby-Doo style. I couldn't believe that I'd been able to hold him! I mean, he's a pretty small guy, but I'm such a weakling! It's a miracle!

"Ve! You saved me! Thank you bella!" Italy said happily.

I was confused for a minute. I didn't do much… "Yeah… You're welcome!" I said happily, grinning.

Then Italy leaned in closer to me and whispered in my ear. "Bella?"

"Yeah?" I said, not sure why I was answering to what was clearly not my name.

"I caught you!" Italy declared happily, a huge smile spreading over his face.

I sputtered. "What? No! I caught _you!_"

Italy shook his head, still smiling. "But I wasn't hiding!" he told me.

"But… But…" I tried to come up with a comeback, but I got nothing. "Okay fine," I said, sticking my tongue out at Italy.

"Yaaaay!" Italy said happily.

I tried to let go of Italy, but he clung onto me all the same. So I shrugged it off and walked out of the pond. As soon as the water was beyond my waist, my weakness returned. "GAH!" yelped, unable to keep upright. I tripped under the sudden weight, dropping Italy and we both went tumbling into the muddy brush. The miracle was over. It occurred to me that maybe my sudden super-strength could have come from being in the water…nah.

"Ve! Are you okay bella?" I heard Italy say and then I saw his head pop up above some brush. He had mud on his face and two twigs sticking out on both sides of his head like antlers.

When I saw this, I began to giggle.

"What are you laughing at bella?" Italy asked, making a very cute confused face.

"Y-Your hair!" I said, my giggles turning into laughter. "You have antlers!"

Italy put up his hands and felt the twigs in his hair. "AAAAAAH!" he screamed and began running around, yelling, "Ive-a turned into a deer! Ima deer!"

"Italy!" I yelled at him, still laughing, I got up and yanked the twigs out of his hair. "It's just sticks, see?"

Italy looked at the sticks with closed eyes. "Ve!" You're right bella!" he said, then he looked at me. Strangely, he started laughing.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"You look like a unicorn!" Italy laughed and pointed at my head.

I walked over to the pond and looked at my reflection. Then I started laughing along with Italy. There was a twig in my hair, sticking strait out of the middle of my forehead. I _did _look like a unicorn!

"Come on Italy," I said when our laughter had ended. "Let's go find the others. I betcha they haven't even been found yet!"

"Ve! Okay!" Italy said happily, linking his arm through mine and we skipped off through the woods together, laughing all the way.

**Safi's POV**

I knew that we probably should've told the countries where we were going, but that'd take away from the fun!

Anyway, I was determined not to be found. So I ran around looking for a good place to hide. I love trees, so naturally I was looking for a hiding spot that was tree-related. I wasn't having a whole lot of luck, and I was just about to give up, but then I found the spot. It was a large oak tree, with very big branches. A ways off the ground, the tree had a great big hole in it.

I grinned at the hole, thinking, _Yes!_ I grabbed one of the low-hanging branches and swung myself up onto another branch. From there, I climbed up to the hole in the tree like an epic ninja-cat. I looked into the hole. It wasn't as big as it had looked from on the ground, but I could probably fit in. The hole was still a little way up; I had to jump op to grab the bottom edge of it. From there I pulled myself up and very carefully turned myself around and slowly began to lower myself into the hole. It was a tight squeeze, but not enough for me to get stuck. Because I didn't want my arms pinned to my sides, I grabbed the edge of the hole and used them to push myself further down. Then my sock-feet hit the bottom of the hole. I looked down and frowned. My head still wasn't in the hole.

Before I could figure out a plan to hide my head, I saw the brush rustling in the brush a ways a way. I gasped and ducked my head, which probably didn't hide it very well, but there wasn't much I could do. I really hoped that whatever was in the brush wasn't a bear, or a cougar, or some sort of evil forest dragon. A nice forest dragon would be fine, even cool!, but not an evil forest dragon.

I didn't hear anything for a while, and I was about to raise my head to look around, but then I heard/felt something through the tree. Something was climbing it. It didn't sound big and clunky like a bear, so I could rule that out. In fact, by the way that it climbed, it made me think of something more apelike. I really _really_ hoped that some sort of evil forest gorilla was coming for me, or _any_ gorilla really.

I bit down on my lip and shut my eyes tightly as the thing came closer, and closer…

"There you are!" I gasped, thinking, _A talking evil gorilla!_, and looked up to see...not an evil gorilla.

"China!" I said, letting out a sigh of relief. "You scared me!"

China smiled a bit. "Sorry-aru. I didn't mean to startle you, but I _did_ mean to find you." He said as he tapped a finger on my head.

I didn't ask why he had called me Aru; instead I smiled good-naturedly and began to pull myself out of the hole. When everything from my knees up was out of the hole, I couldn't get out by pushing anymore. I reached for something to grab to pull myself out with, but my hands found nothing. Before I could regain my balance I started to fall forward. I squeezed my eyes shut and did the one thing I could do. I yelled, "HELP!"

I was suddenly grabbed by the back of my shirt. "It's okay!" I heard China reassure me. "I got you-aru!"

I opened my eyes, which was a mistake. I gasped when I saw the ground far below me and I tried to scramble upwards and I grabbed the first stable thing I felt…which happened to be China. I blushed a bit, but I clung to him tighter still. I _did not_ wasn't to fall.

"Don't worry," China said and his arm wrapped firmly around my waist, only making me blush more. "You're safe now." He bent over a bit to look at my face. "Are you okay-aru?" he asked me.

I gulped, managing a nod, but not managing to look him in the eyes. "Y-Yeah," I said. "I'm okay."

"Good," China said. "Because I'm going to need you to hang."

I looked at him, puzzled. "Why would I need to hand oAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!" I screamed as China leapt from the tree. I once again squeezed my eyes shut and waited to be dead, but after a bump, there was no more movement. Everything was still.

"We are on the ground now-aru," China told me. "You can let go now."

"… Are you sure?" I asked. There was no way that I was going to let go until I was absolutely sure that I was not going to fall anymore.

I felt China suppress a chuckle. "Yes," he told me. "You're safe now."

I slowly, slowly opened my eyes, to see the ground under my feet. … Well, technically under _China's_ feet. I was still clinging on to him. Realizing that I was still clinging to him, I let go suddenly and stepped away, blushing madly. I looked down at my feet and noticed that I was covered in cobwebs, sap and rotten tree bark.

China looked at me with a small, kind smile. He had his fair share of bark on him as well. "What were you doing up there anyway-aru?" He asked me, carefully pulling some twigs out of his ponytail.

I swallowed, trying to suppressing my blushing as I raked my fingers through my hair, pulling out some cobwebs. "Playing hide and seek," I said quietly.

China cocked his head slightly. "Why would you do this and not tell us-aru?"

I shrugged. "More fun."

"But how would we know to look for you?"

"You looked for me."

China didn't really have an answer for that, so after a while of thinking, he smiled at me. "Come on," he said, jutting his head towards the woods. "We should go and find the other countries." He grabbed my hand and led me in that direction, me blushing all the way.

**3****rd**** Person POV, Alex and Mari**

Alex and Mari ran together through the forest. They were smart and had decided to stay together so that if they got lost and had to live in the forest for the rest of their lives cannibalism could be an option… JUST KIDDING! They just didn't want to be alone in the woods while they hid, although they had discussed cannibalism before…

"Hey! Look at that!" Alex said to Mari.

Mari followed Alex's pointing finger and saw a large group of big wild strawberry bushes. "Perfect!" Mari said. "That's a great place to hide!"

"Hide?" Alex asked Mari, a confused look on her face. "I meant the berries. I'm getting kindof hungry…"

Mari rolled her eyes good naturedly. "Then I guess you won't mind if I hide in there," she said.

"Are you kidding?!" Alex exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips. "And ruin the strawberries?! I don't think so!"

Mari frowned. "But we need to hide from the countries!" she reasoned. "You don't want to be found, do you?"

"But I wanna eeeeeeeat!" Alex whined.

Mari ignored her and began making her way into the bush, but she was grabbed by the scruff of her shirt and yanked back. She turned to look at Alex, who had a murderous look on her face. "I said," she said. "Don't. Touch. The strawberries."

Mari narrowed her eyes at her friend. "You wanna go bro?" she asked.

"I TOLD YOU YOU'RE BANNED FROM SAYING BRO!" Alex screamed. "It sounds so weird when you say it! You're supposed to be a grammar nazi!"

"I'll say what I want to when I want to!" Mari yelled back. "I'm going to hide in this strawberry bush, wreck the berries, and there's nothing you can do about it!" She turned on her heel and marched into the bush.

"NO!" Alex shrieked and tackled Mari to the ground. As they had in the meeting room during breakfast, there was an all-out brawl on the forest floor. It was very entertaining to watch, which is why America and Britain didn't do anything at first.

"… Should we stop them?" Britain asked America, not looking away from the girls.

When the younger nation didn't answer, Britain turned to see that America had his iPhone out. "Dude," he said. "This is totally going on YouTube. Or AFV. Or both!"

Britain got mad at America. "You git! You should at least ask their permission first!"

America frowned at his 'big brother'. "Hey lay off British dude!" he exclaimed.

"Delete that video immediately!" Britain demanded, reaching for the iPhone.

"No! I do what I wasn't biatch!" America countered, holding the iPhone just out of Britain's reach, brutally reminding the Brit of his adversary's height advantage.

Soon they were in a brawl too. Eventually the two dust clouds merged into one, and noticing the close proximity of the others, everyone stopped.

"What are you guys doing?" Alex asked, Mari standing next to her.

Britain and America glanced at each other. "Nothing…" they said unconvincingly.

Mari and Alex crossed their arms. "Boys," Mari said like a mother talking to feuding children, secretly amused that the countries had failed to confront her and Alex about their fight.

Before Britain could say anything, America pointed at him and said, "Britain was telling me what to doooo!"

"What?!" Britain exclaimed. "You were going to post a video of them on the internet you bloody-"

"Hey! You can't tell America what to do!" Alex said, putting her hands on her hips. "He's great!"

"Heck yeah!" America exclaimed, doing a fistpump. "My citizen is awesome!"

Mari frowned. "You were going to post a video of us fighting? You can't do that without asking!"

"Actually, I can," America said, holding up his iPhone. "I got the whole thing on video."

Mari's voice began to get very red, and eyes reflected her murderous thoughts.

When America saw this, he began backing away, being unusually smart for who he was. "Hey, now," he said. "We're all bros here, right? Which is why you won't mind if I post this, right?" Aaaaaand there went the unusual smartness.

Mari was just about to launch herself at America, when Britain beat her to it. "I WON'T LET YOU!" the Brit screamed, once again engaging in a brawl.

"YEAH! Go Britain!" Mari yelled, smiling in triumph. She grabbed a handful of strawberries and began chucking them at the American idiot with spectacular aim.

"Ow! Ow! OW!' America cried out as each strawberry hit him. He couldn't block the offending berries for he desperately did not want Britain to win.

"NO!" Alex yelled, jumping in and putting herself between the fighting countries and Mari's strawberries of doom. When Mari paused to reload, Alex turned and kicked Britain in the forehead, sending the Brit somersaulting backwards and into the brush.

"HEY!" Mari screamed when she saw what had happened to the unfortunate nation. "You can't do that to Britain! He's too awesome!"

"RUN!" Alex yelled as she dragged America into the protection of the strawberry bushes. She pushed him to the ground so that they were both on their stomachs in the dirt.

**Alex's POV**

That was the last straw…berry. First Mari'd wanted to ruin the strawberries, then she'd told America what to do, _then_ she'd wasted strawberries by throwing them at Britain! _This means war!_

America looked at me strangely "What'ere you doing-"

He was interrupted as I slapped my hand over his mouth. _Hey… He's kinda cute! But I'll have to save my hot-guy knowledge for a later date._ "Sh!" I told him before removing my hand to wipe some strawberry off his face. "We're in the belly of the beast now, my friend. We have Mari as an adversary, which is never good-"

"So what're we gonna d-OW!" America exclaimed as he was hit with a strawberry.

"I said sh!" I said again, silently apologizing to the strawberry for wasting it to get him to listen. "Now, as I was _saying_," I continued, picking strawberries off the bush and therefor breaking my vow to do nothing to strawberries but eat them. "Mari may be a worthy adversary," I turned and grinned evilly at America. "But so am I."

America stared at me for a moment, and then his face broke into an equally evil smile. "I like the way you work, shawty," he said, trying and failing to pull off a gangster voice.

I bit back a laugh at his epic fail, but smiling at the oddly complimenting statement. "All right then. For the USA, and strawberries! ATTACK!"

**Mari's POV, a few minutes before**

Ohohoho, so Alex wanted a war, did she? Well then, a war she would get.

I jumped into the bush, crawling around on my hands and knees, whisper-calling, "Britain! Britain!" I was just about to give up, when something came hurtling at me through the brush. I shrieked as we rolled around through the brush. I was soon pinned to the ground.

"Got you Yankie!" Britain yelled from on top of me. When he looked at my face, his green eyes widened in horror. "Oh my gosh!" he exclaimed as he jumped off of me, visibly startled "I-I'm so sorry love! I thought you were America!"

I hadn't moved from my spot on the ground. I was a bit frozen in shock from the close proximity I'd just been with the British man. Knowing that my silence was only making the encounter that much more awkward, I forced myself to sit up. "I-It's okay," I said, trying to keep my breathing from becoming unusually loud. "It was an accident."

There was a moment of awkward silence, then Britain said, "That bloody wanker! I'll kill him! If he hadn't taken that video of you two, this wouldn't have happened!"

I turned to look at Britain. He was sitting in the dirt with his head bowed, and he was visibly shaking with anger. "Why do you care?" I asked. The question was not rude, just honest.

Britain raised his head to look at me, met my eyes and became extremely flustered. "I j-just don't think it's right. I didn't want that wanker posting that video. Knowing how quickly the internet works, you two might become the next laughing stock of the internet. I didn't want that to happen."

I looked at him for a moment, and then I smiled. "Well, let's make sure that doesn't happen then." I said, fingering some nearby strawberries.

Britain took a second to process what I'd said, then he grinned an evil smile that could rival even mine.

"Ready love?" he asked me after we'd loaded up. I nodded. "On three… One, two three-"

Just then, America and Alex burst through the bush, Alex screaming,

"ATTACK!"

**My POV**

In retrospect, my friends and I probably should've stayed together as a group. Then again, that would only make us easier to find. Of course there's always the chance of me getting lost out here on my own… But I've watched plenty of Survivor Man and I've read the Hatchet books, so I'd be fine… Although, I lacked a hatchet…and a harmonica.

ANYWAYS, being an experienced hide-and-seeker, I knew that the best way to keep hidden was to keep changing your hiding spot. So I walked around, looking for a spot to hide in that would hide me well but I could easily get out of without making much noise. Yes, I happen to be a very picky hider. Get over it. I finally found a place that I deemed worthy; a very large cedar tree. I smiled as I began to climb up the cedar's rather large low-hanging branches, remembering the tall cedars at my grandparents' house.

It took me not long at all to reach a good height in the tree, which was a very good thing, because I heard someone moving through the brush. Quickly, I positioned myself in the tree so that the trunk was between me and the direction I'd heard the noises coming from.

The noises continued and soon they turned into footsteps. They came closer and closer until they stopped right under the tree.

I quieted my breath, closed my eyes and became very still, thinking, _Tree, tree, be the tree._

There was no noise for a long time. Had the person snuck away unnaturally quietly? I had to control my curiosity so that I didn't move to look at who it was, or if they were even still there. _If I hold still long enough, if they don't see me, they'll go away…_

"Vhat are you doing up zere?" I heard a familiar German voice say from directly below me.

_Dang!_ I sighed and turned to look down at Germany. It was funny to see him from above, a perspective I hadn't had the pleasure of viewing. He looked straight up at me with a confused look on his face. "Well, I _was_ hiding," I said simply.

Germany's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Vhy vere you hiding?" he asked.

"Hide and seek, duh." I replied, repositioning myself so that my back was leaning against the tree and I crossed my arms over my chest as I casually looked down at him. "And now you've found me."

After a long pause of neither of us moving, Germany finally said, "Aren't you going to come down?"

"Nope." I replied simply.

This only made the German more confused. "Vhy?" he asked.

I smirked, partially at his accent, which I enjoyed hearing. "We play _tag_ hide-and-seek. You have to tag me before I quit."

Germany frowned. "I am _not_ coming up zere!" he stated firmly.

My smirk turned into a real smile. "Guess I'll have to run then!" I said. Before Germany could ask just how I was going to do that, and before I even knew what I was doing, I broke out into a run along the strong bow I was standing on. Relying on my speed and my bare feet to cancel out my natural incoordination, I ran down the length of the branch until it tapered to a width that would no longer support my weight, and I leaped.

"NEIN!" Germany screamed, but I paid him no heed.

Gasping, as I am not typically a screamer, I squeezed my eyes shut as I flew through the cedar leaves slightly feet-first. My feet made contact with a branch and my hands grabbed onto one also. Then I was still. I opened my eyes to see that I was standing on the branch of a paper birch, my hands grasping another branch above my head for support. I twisted my head around to see where I'd broken through the cedar leaves, and I hadn't lost hardly any height!

My face broke into a huge, open-mouthed grin. How had I done that?! I'd never have been able to do that back in our world… _That's it! It's this anime world! It lets the impossible become possible! THIS IS GREAT!_ I looked down at Germany, who was gaping at me with a shocked expression that only anime could produce. I laughed, partially at his funny face, partially in sheer amazement at what I'd just done. "That was amazing!" I cried out into the forest, then my eyes lit up with an idea. "Let's see if I can do it again!"

Germany's face changed from unconscious shock to conscious horror. "Nein! Nein! Don't do tha-OH MEIN-!"

"WOO HOO!" I yelled as I leaped to another tree, drowning out Germany's (no doubt) swearing. This time, my feet didn't make contact with anything, but my hands did. My momentum was enough to swing me up and around the branch like the gymnast I was NOT, yelling "WoahoahOAH!" and I landed with my legs on either side of the branch, clutching it in front of me. I broke out into another bout of laughter. "This is crazy! This is absolutely crazy!" I exclaimed to myself in sheer joy.

"You've got zat right!" I smiled down at Germany beneath me. Ha! This tree had no lowing hanging branches so he couldn't climb up to get me even if he wanted to! "Get down here before you fall unt break your neck!" he yelled.

"Hm," I said, as if considering his command. "How 'bout…no." I stood up on the branch I was sitting on, using the tree trunk for support, and leaped to another tree.

This ordeal carried on for a while. I'd leap to a tree, Germany'd follow from on the ground and scream at me, I'd leap to another tree. It's not like I was doing anything super-ninja; the trees in this part of the forest were_ perfect_ for this kind of thing, and as long as long as I didn't think much about what I was doing, I always landed safely.

After a few more minutes, my height had decrease to about ten feet above the ground, and Germany had stopped screaming. He did continue to follow me from the ground however, muttering to himself what were probably mostly threats in angry German. "Why do you keep jumping avay?" He stopped his muttering to yell at me. "Vhat are you doing?"

"Whee!" I said, jumping to another branch. I hung upside-down on that branch so that if Germany had been closer, I would've been nearly eye to eye with him. "Trying to lose you." I said simply, quickly flipping myself upright again and balancing myself on the branch, incase Germany tried to pull me to the ground.

Germany looked confused. "… Vhy?" he asked.

"It's how you play the game," I said shrugging. "No offence or anything, but I have to be caught before I will come with you." I jumped to another tree. "Although," I said, gripping the trunk. "It _is_ pretty slow going."

"Zen vhy don't you give up?"

"NEVA!" I exclaimed before jumping away again.

Germany sighed. "You do know that you'll fall eventually," He stated oh so encouragingly.

I looked down at him and shook my head. "Nope." I said. "I don't believe in falling"*

Germany looked at me funny for about the hundredth time that day. "… I don't zink zat's how it vorks…" he said.

I grinned. "Sure it is!" I said. "Watch this!" and I leaped. I really shouldn't have said that because I misjudged the distance I slipped. I gasped as my feet didn't grip the branch and I fell…almost. My hands caught the branch I'd tried to land on and I dangled there helplessly.

"I told you!" I heard Germany running to me; I'd leapt a good deal away from where he was standing.

Grunting, I tried to pull myself up, but it was no use. I dropped to the ground, my feet buckling and ended up with one knee and one hand on the ground. "I didn't fall," I said, my back turned to Germany as I dusted myself off. "That was a drop, not a fall. Drops are voluntarY!" I yelped as my shoulders were grabbed and I was spun around.

"ARE YOU CRAZY FRAU?!" Germany shouted in my face as he shook my shoulders violently, my head whipping back and forth. "You could've been killed!"

"Ubaduadubarga!" I tried to speak as my head continued its wild motions.

Germany, realizing that I could not answer in this state, stopped shaking me to stare at me with a very angry face, but when I looked into his blue eyes and saw…concern.

"…Germany," I smiled mischievously. "Were you worried about me?"

Germany's face turned to surprise, as did mine. Even I was surprised at my own cockiness! It must've been extra-high from my epic tree adventure, because normally I wouldn't have said anything like that.

My face heated up, and I was about to try and somehow fix what I'd said, but before I could say anything, Germany looked away, a small amount of blush on his cheeks, and muttered, "I…just didn't vant you to get hurt. Zat's all."

I blinked. I wasn't sure what to say…so I smiled again. "Gave you quite the scare, didn't I?" I said, giving into this newfound cockiness.

Germany turned back to glare at me. He lifted one hand from my shoulder. "Don't. Ever. Do. Zat. Again." He said firmly, accenting each word with a poke to my forehead.

I blinked and flinched with each poke, but when he was done, Germany let go of my shoulders and I smiled once again. _Aw, he _does_ care!_ I thought to myself.

"So you finally caught me," I said aloud. This cockiness was kind of fun!

Germany nodded. "Unt I am going to make sue zat you don't run avay again."

Before I could react, Germany grabbed my arms and threw me over his shoulder. "Oof!" I grunted as my stomach made contact with his shoulder. "Hey! What's the big idea? Put me down!" I yelled, my face heating up again.

Germany's arm wrapped firmly around my legs and he started to walk. "Nein." He said without looking at me.

I sighed, blowing my hair out of my face. "Where are we going?" I asked.

"To find your friends unt ze ozer countries," he said as we walked through the brush.

"I've been caught you know," I pointed out. "I'm not gonna run away again."

"Not taking any chances," Germany stated as he continued walking.

I sighed again as I propped my head on my elbow against Germany's back, being glad that he could not see my small smile.

**_*Where I'd Like To Be, by Frances O'Roark Dowell. Great book! Real deep for being told by an eleven-year-old! Read it!_**


	8. FOOD

_**YOUR FACE IS KAWAII! **_**'Ellos audience! **_*gets chased by Tobuscus and Pewdiepie* __**GERRRRRRRRRMAAAAAAAANYYYYYYY YYYY!**__**Some of my favorite YouTube guys are chasing me agaaaaaaain!**_

_**Anywho, here are my responses! Da-ze!**_

_**Sarpndo: Lol **__I__** thought it was the most fun ;) But the whole thing was a BALL**_ _**to write! I had so much fun, and I had no trouble making it longer this way!**_

_**TheAmericanNinja: Lol SO FLUFFY! The relationship-ly squeamish should turn away XD Lol yeah my friends and I are like this too; We crazy, no?**_

_**JCScannell**__**: Yay! What's life without humor, you know?**_

_**Atlantic Jewel: ISN'T HE KAWAII?! Lol Zara had a lot of fun on that part. YUS EPIC STRAWBERRY WWIV!**_

_**Katharonie**__**: Lol while that is a great idea, I'm pretty sure Adaliz would react to the suggestion the same way Japan would XD I LOVED messing with him like that! **__*Germany: "I heard zat!"*__** OH CRAP HE'S GOING TO GET MEEEEEEEE!**_

_**HURRY UP AND READ THE FIRKIN STORY BEFORE HE GETS ME!**_

So there I was, slung over Germany's shoulder like some sack of potatoes as he walked through the forest. It was a little weird…okay, a LOT weird, being carried around like that I hadn't been on someone's shoulders since I'd been a little kid, so you can imagine how strange it was as an adult.

_Gosh he's strong, _I thought. I was against his back after all; I could feel the well-developed muscles…

My eyes flew open. No. _No no no no NO!_ I wanted to keep my mind virgin! I knew that I was an adult so it was a little too late for that, but I try not to give into the sick-mindedness that was so stereotypical to our age group, and being carried by a big buff guy was _not helping_.

"Put me down!" I shouted, squirming around. I didn't want to be stuck in this position any longer.

"Stop struggling!" Germany ordered, tightening his grip around my legs. "You're only making zis harder!"

"That's kind of the point," I said, pressing my hands against Germany's back in an attempt to push myself loose.

Suddenly, Germany released my legs.

"GAH!" I exclaimed as I dropped head-first towards the ground.

In an instant, my legs were grabbed again and my descent was stopped. However, my hips were now across Germany's shoulder, rather than my stomach as before. This left me in a much more helpless position.

My breath quickened from my sudden almost-trip to the ground. A fear had been reawakened, a long-forgotten fear that had dissipated as I got older and was held less, but now it was back. An old fear, a fear of being dropped.

"don't drop me!" I shouted, hoping that I sounded more commanding than pleading.

"I zought you didn't believe in falling," Germany said as he began walking again.

My hands quickly grabbed the back of Germany's shirt at the sudden movement. It was a desperate attempt at preventing me from getting any lower, but I knew all the same that if I really was dropped that my precaution would be futile. I just didn't care.

"I don't," I said, trying not to look down. "But I believe in dropping, which I really hope you do not do to me right now."

"I don't plan on dropping you," Germany stated. "As long as you stop trying to get avay."

I sighed in defeat. "Fine." I said. "I'll stop. Just _don't drop me_."

"I von't."

"Promise."

"…Promise? Vhy?"

"Because I don't want to be dropped."

"I've already told you zat I von't."

"I know, and now I want you to promise."

After a pause, Germany sighed. "I promise." He said. "Now vould you please let fo of mein shirt?"

"… Pull me back up?"

"What?"

"If you insist on carrying me, then at least pull me back up!"

Germany sighed again, then he sort of bounced upwards in the way you would if repositioning a sack, sending me into the air.

I gave a yelp and let go of Germany's shirt to brace myself for impact, (because I thought that I was being dropped), but instead my legs were tugged on, pulling me so that my stomach was once again on Germany's shoulder.

I gasped as some air was knocked out of me. "Do you _enjoy _scaring the crap out of me?!" I asked him, although I sighed in relief at being in a much safer position. As long as I didn't push against Germany again, if he let go of my legs I wouldn't fall.

Germany didn't answer, and I sorely wished that I could see his face to try and guess that the heck he was thinking.

"Ve Germany!" I heard a familiar voice say, and the next thing I knew, Germany was attacked in a hug.

I gasped again as Germany's balance wavered, but he didn't drop me. I craned my head to try and see what was going on.

"Italy!" Germany scolded. "Vhy are you soaking vet?!"

"Lees!" I heard Zara say. My face began to get hot; I wasn't exactly in a normal position right now.

Zara walked into my line of sight. She twisted around so that her head was almost upside-down like mine. "What're you doin'?" she asked innocently.

I sighed. "Germany doesn't trust me not to run away anymore." I said softly.

Zara giggled. "Ha!" she said. "It's you for once and not me!"

My face burned because it was true and said nothing. I noticed that Zara was dripping water, so that gave me something to say. "Why are you all wet?" I asked.

Zara grinned. "Oh," she said, "I hid in a pond." like it was the most casual thing ever.

My eyes widened. "You hid in a pond?" I asked.

"Yes Echo!" Zara laughed. "And Italy fell in too!"

I said nothing, listening to Germany grumble about being all wet now, and Italy had just hugged him. This sent me into a fit of giggles. _Better you than me big guy_, I thought to myself. "Have you seen the others?" I asked Zara aloud.

She looked like she was about to say no, but then there was some rustling in the brush and Zara looked up to see what it was. I, sadly, could not.

"I see Safi!" Zara exclaimed, running out of sight and no doubt to give her a bit wet hug.

"… Lees?" I heard Safi say after she'd taken her sopping-wet glomp. "Is that you?"

"Aiya! Germany! What's on your shoulder?" I heard China exclaim.

I moved my right hand a bit in a weak attempt at a wave. "Yup." I said unenthusiastically. "It's me."

"What happened?" Safi asked as she came into view. She was covered in rotten wood and cobwebs and there was a leaf on her head, like she'd been attacked by an old, musty tree.

"Leesy got in trooooouble!" Zara sang giddily as she skipped around Safi.

"Zara I will gag you with a spoon!" I threatened, pushing myself up against Germany's back with my left hand as I grabbed at Zara, only to miss with my right and loose grip with my left, resulting in me flopping back down unepically as Zara laughed.

I growled a bit at my smallest friend before asking Safi, "So what happened to you?"

Safi blushed a bit. "I hid inside a tree, off the ground." She said. "China had to help me down."

Before I could ask for details, we heard more rustling in the brush. This time, I pushed myself upwards against Germany's back with both hands so that I was half-planking, but I could see who was coming for myself.

Out of the brush came Alex, America, Mari and Britain. They all looked like they'd gone through the Great Pie war*, only instead of pie they were covered in…berry juice?

"Woah!" Zara exclaimed laughingly. "What happened to you guys?"

Mari wiped some berry juice out of her eye. "War." She said in a very serious tone.

"Strawberry style." Alex added, licking some berry juice off the back of her hand.

Mari looked up and saw me, a puzzled expression on her face. "Why is Lees-?"

"Dude! Hahahahaha!" America laughed obnoxiously. "What're you doing on the German dude's shoulder? This is so going on Facebook!" and to my absolute horror he whipped out an iPhone and aimed it at me as if to take a picture.

"NO!" I screamed, and in a sudden burst of strength I launched myself backwards and out of Germany's grasp. If Germany hadn't grabbed me again I would've landed flat on my back, but he did, so I was placed right back on his shoulder as before.

Luckily Britain was now fighting with America for his phone, so my home country hadn't had the chance to take an embarrassing photo of me.

Soon after that, the rest of the countries found us. France, Russia and Japan came through the brush and joined the group.

"Why is the little girl on your shoulder Germany?" Russia asked.

Before I could say something along the likes of, 'I'm not little!', France chuckled, "Ohnhonhonhon, you are in quite the vulnerable position, aren't you, ma Cherie?"

"France if you came anywhere _near_ my rear I will personally see to it that you never have children!"

Thankfully, that was enough to keep him at bay.

"Usuarry it is Italy who is on Mr. Germany's shoulder." Japan said, walking over to me, tipping his head slightly to look at me.

"Ve, you look funny lady!" Italy laughed cheerfully at me, following Japan's example, except he bent himself almost upside-down.

"Thaaaaaanks," I said sarcastically, but of course Italy didn't get sarcasm and said. "You're welcome!"

"Do you guys have any more strawberries?" Zara asked the berry-war veterans randomly.

Mari and Alex looked at each other. "I think we used them all as amo," Alex said.

"Darn!" Zara exclaimed. "I'm getting' hungry!"

Now that I thought about it, it was probably getting close to supper time, we'd all missed lunch, and my stomach rumbled at the mention of food. Germany may have felt this, or he may have just been hungry also, because he said, "Maybe ve should get somezing to eat."

"Yeah dude!" America exclaimed as he fist-pumped. "Let's all go to my place to eat yo!"

"We do _not_ want to eat your greasy fast food!" Britain retorted.

America frowned. "Hey! It's the grease that makes it taste so good, British dude!" And it's better than your food any day!"

Before this turned into an all-out brawl, Italy interrupted with, "Veeeeeee! I want pastaaaaa!'

This only made my stomach rumble more. _Pastaaaaa_, I thought dreamily. It was my _favorite food ever_, and the fact that I was already very hungry made it sound that much more wonderful.

America snapped his fingers. "I got it!" he exclaimed. "Let's go to _Il Pomodoro_!" It's an Italian restaurant at my place, and the food there is quality!"

My friends and I all perked up at this suggestion. _Il Pomodoro_ had always been one of our favorite places to go, but the food wasn't exactly cheap, so we only went there on special occasions.

Mari realized this and said, "Are you sure? That place is pretty spendy…"

America made a 'Pfft' noise and laughed. "Spendy?" he said. "I'm one of the richest frikin' countries in the world! This is nothing!"

Even though it was an Italian/American chain restaurant, the other countries seemed game. They must've been fairly used to eating other countries' foods. So we headed off.

"Uh, Germany?" I said before he had the chance to start walking. "My friends and I are going to a fancy restaurant in our pajamas, so we'll be looked at weird enough, and I'm not Italy, so could you _please_ put me down so that I don't lose _all_ of my pride?"

Germany agreed and he set me back down on my feet. All of the blood that had flowed to my brain while upside-down now rushed back down to my feet and I suddenly became very dizzy. I probably would've fallen over if Germany hadn't set a strong hand on my shoulder.

"Woah," I said, regaining my balance. "Thank you." As I started to walk off with the rest of the group, Germany kept his hand firmly on my shoulder.

"Uh, Germany?" I said again. "You can, you can let go now."

"I don't vant you running off again." He stated.

"… _Really?_" I asked, giving him a look, seriously wishing that I could cock my eyebrow like Mari.

Ja." Germany replied sternly.

I looked at him for a moment, then I sighed and continued walking.

At only a block away from _Il Pomodoro_, we could smell the garlic and baking bread in the air. While I've always been told that garlic has an unpleasant smell, I'd grown up with strong Italian influences from my father's side and so the smell had always been heavenly to me. And who doesn't love the smell of freshly-baked garlic bread when hungry?

When we walked through the door, the aroma strengthened and my mouth watered. The place had an Italian village feel to it, which I found very appealing. The building itself was not that large but there was a sort of second-story/balcony thingy to create more space.

"Hello!" said the hostess. Her mouth smiled brightly but her eyes darted over me and my pajama-ed friends. "Welcome to _Il Pomodoro_!

"Ve! Ciao Signorina!" Italy said to the lady. "Table for thirteen, per favore!"

The woman smiled and said, "Of course! Right this way!" She grabbed a bundle of menus and left her booth, motioning for us to follow. On the way to our table, she stopped to speak to some other workers. They walked ahead of us and went upstairs to the balcony-thingy. The hostess also lead us up the stairs, and we saw the other workers arranging seven small, square tables into one large, rectangular table. Our table was in a corner by a large window, which gave a great view of whatever city we were in. It wasn't big like Minneapolis or anything, and there were no landmarks that I recognized, so I figured that we were just in some sort of medium-sized city in the US. Anywho, the view was wonderful.

My friends sat down at the table, and Germany released my shoulder so that I could too. I sat with Safi to my left and Zara to my right. To Zara's right sat Alex and to Safi's left sat Mari. Alex and Mari still seemed a bit steamed form the strawberry war… Meh, they'd be better by tomorrow. They always were.

"Your waiter will be with you in a moment." The hostess stated, still smiling pleasantly, passing out the menus. "Enjoy your time at _Il Pomodoro_!" And with that she left us for her booth.

I gasped as suddenly both my hands were grabbed and pulled behind my chair. I tried to pull my hands free, but I was hopelessly outmatched in strength and something metal clicked around my wrists. I tried to move my hands, but they wouldn't move more than a few inches. "What the-?" I said, yanking my hands harder, producing a clinking-clanking sound. I craned my neck over my shoulder to see Germany standing behind me, and when I looked down I saw that my hands had been cuffed behind the chair. "Hey what's the big idea?!" I exclaimed at the culprit.

Germany looked down at me with a stern expression. "To keep you from running avay." He stated.

This made me pretty POed, and I was about to argue, but the expression on Germany's face said so clearly 'Don't mess with me' that I huffed and instead and said, "Never gonna let that go, are ya?"

"Maybe at ze end of ze night." Germany told me before walking off to find a seat.

I resisted the urge to bang my head against the table. I grumbled a bit under my breath, but I stopped when I saw Zara looking at me. Her eyes were bright with mischief and her mouth was twisted into a funny shape, no doubt with suppressed laughter.

"Hey Leesy," she said.

I eyed her warily. It was never good when she looked like this. "… What?" I finally asked.

Zara leaned in closer to me, as if to tell me a secret, but instead she lifted a finger and quickly tapped my nose. "Boop!" she chirped.

"Oh for the love of-!" I started to exclaim, but I was interrupted by another "Boop!"

I growled at Zara. I _hated_ being booped, and she knew it. She was having a great time; she laughed between boops, laughing even harder when I tried to bite her fingers. _Dang her! _I couldn't fight back, and Zara knew that she was fast enough to not get bitten. This made a giddy Zara and a POed my.

Most of the countries' eyes and smiled betrayed their amusement as they suppressed their laughter, which my friends did not even try to do. Alex and Mari were giggling as they watched, and even Safi was making snickering noises.

"Boop! Boop boop boop! Boooooop!" Zara pressed my nose for a long time before snatching her finger out of reach of my teeth and cackling.

"I _will_ bite you eventually!" I threatened, glaring at my attacker.

Zara laughed good-naturedly but thankful stopped her attacks.

I sighed with relief before looking at the other countries, who were still watching me. "Take a pic, It'll last longer," I mumbled under my breath, mostly so that America couldn't hear me.

"What was that about?" America laughed.

"Lees doesn't like being booped," Alex explained with a grin.

"She _hates_ it!" Mari giggled. "She totally despises it, and now she can't even fight back!"

"Yeah yeah yeah," I grumbled, loud enough to be heard. I glared at Germany, thinking, _This is _your_ fault!_

Germany looked at me with what might've been a suppressed smirk and amusement in his blue eyes.

Before anyone could say anything else, a man dressed like a waiter walked up to us. "Hello." He said unenthusiastically. "I'll be your waiter for today. My name is Paul." Aha! So he _was_ a waiter!

"What?" Zara asked.

"I said my name is Paul." Paul relied in the exact same tone.

"Oh, I thought you were a woman." Zara whispered to me. I quickly bit down on my tongue and squeezed my eyes shut as I tried to keep the corners of my mouth from curling upwards as I suppressed a large amount of laugher. "Carrrrrrl," I managed to whine softly and both Zara and I bit back sniggers. We looked up to see Paul glare at us for a moment before taking everyone's orders for drinks. The funny thing was since Paul didn't move around to my side of the table he didn't see that I was in handcuffs. At least we wouldn't be kicked out for handcuffing people to chairs. _Cross that one off the list of possibilities…_

"I'll be back with drinks and bread in just a moment." Paul stated monotone-ly after he'd taken our orders and walked away.

Everyone opened their menus, except me of course. "Have whatever you want guys!" America said. "My treat! Take two of everything for all I care!"

Safi looked over at me and noticed my predicament. She gave me a sympathetic smile before putting her menu between the two of us so that I could see it too.

I smiled back at her and we looked through the menu together. _Dang she's fast!_ I thought, trying to keep up with Safi. She could read a whole page in the time it took me to go halfway though, and I'm a pretty fast reader. She even retained all of that info too! Luckily, we were both thinking pasta, so we didn't have to do a whole lot of flipping.

In not too much time, Paul came back and gave us each our drinks and set a few baskets of bread, some small bowls, and a bottle of virgin olive oil along the table. "Bread is unlimited," Paul stated as if he was reading a script. "So let me know if you need more." Then he took our orders.

When he got to Alex, she said, "I'll just have a plate of plain noodles with some cheesy bread please."

Paul stared at her. "_Plain_ noodles?" he asked.

"Yes." Alex stated. She looked around the table to see some of us looking at her. Italy looked just plain horrified. "So I'm picky. Get over it."

Paul sighed and continued. When he got to America, our country exclaimed, "I'll have twenty burgers!" heroically.

Paul raised his eye brows, not looking amused. "We don't carry burgers." He stated.

"What?!" America shouted angrily. "What kind of American restaurant doesn't carry burgers?!"

"Sir, if you have a problem with our menu, you can find yourself somewhere else to eat." Paul said in a controlled-anger voice.

America huffed. "I guess I'll have the steak then," he said unenthusiastically.

When Paul got to Zara, she said, "I'll have the Parmesan Challenge!"

Paul's eyes widened. "That is a _lot_ of food. Not many can do it."

"But I'll get a free desert!"

"_If_ you finish."

"Not if, _when_."

Paul sighed again, but wrote on his notepad. "I'll be back with your food soon." And he left, walking rather quickly.

I stared at the basket of bread that had unfortunately been placed directly in front of me. It smelled wonderful, and it had come with a small bowl of oil for dipping. My stomach moaned in longing, and I tried to reach out for the bread but was stopped by the handcuffs. I watched sadly as the others took bread while I had so sit there and watch.

I was so focused on what I was missing out on that I didn't even notice when Germany got up, walked around the table and knelt down behind me. I jumped in my chair when I felt my handcuffs being messed with from behind, being a naturally jumpy person. I craned my head over my shoulder to see Germany release my right hand and lock the other cuff to the chair.

Germany looked up to see the slightly surprised expression on my face. "How can you eat without a free hand?" he reasoned.

Even though Germany was the one who'd cuffed me in the first place, I couldn't help but give him a small smile of gratitude. Then I turned back to the table and eagerly grabbed a piece of bread. I dipped in in the olive oil, let the excess oil drip off, then raised it to my mouth and took a bite. I sighed in satisfaction, enjoying the taste of freshly baked bread and olive oil on my tongue. I hadn't eaten nice like this for so long, so that and my hunger made it taste that much better.

As we waited for our food, the countries, my friends and I chatted up a storm. It was extremely interesting, talking to the countries, and they seemed to find us interesting as well. We traded stories, each one funnier than the last, having a great time! The more we talked, the more we got to know about each other, the more fun we had.

"So where did you girls come from?" Russia asked us at another point.

My friends and I looked at each other. "Well," Safi started off. "We come from-"

"Another dimension!" Alex blurted out.

"ALEX!" My friends and I yelled at her.

Alex shrugged. "Well we did! They were going to find out somehow."

"The plan was to break it to them _slowly_!" Mari said, putting her face in her hands.

I sighed and looked at the countries. They all had shocked looks on their faces. "W-What?" Japan stuttered. "We thought maybe you ferr out of an airplane! Another dimension? Are you serious?"

"Yep!" Zara said and I facepalmed. I guess she'd given up on sticking to the plan also.

"Another dimension?" asked, astonished. "Are you serious dudes? That is so cool yo! What's it like?!"

We all looked at Mari looked at Mari, who would probably have the best chance of explaining it.

"Um," Mari said. "Well, it's kind of hard to explain. The world isn't anime, like this is." She gestured to the world.

"Then…what is it?" Britain asked.

"It's…more detailed." Safi said.

Zara snapped her fingers. "Lees! Draw 'um a picture." She commanded.

"What?" I asked, taken aback. "I'm not sure if I can pull that from memory, but I can try. Does anybody have paper and a pencil?"

"Can't you pull some out of thin air?" Alex asked. "Like these guys can, and Mari did with the book earlier."

"Um, I don't know," I answered, then I looked at the countries. "How _do_ you do that?" I asked.

"Wait, you can't do that-aru?" China asked.

"… No. If we want to pull something out, it comes from our pockets, and we have to have put it in there earlier."

"… Vell zat seems limiting." Germany commented.

I nodded. "It is, but we manage…for the most part. Anyway, how do you guys do it?"

None of the countries really knew _how_ they did it, they just did it. When I asked Mari, she shrugged, wide-eyed and made a "Wff!" sound. So I decided to just try it. With my free hand, I reached behind me, thinking, _paper and pencil, paper and pencil_. To my surprise, I actually felt something in my hand. Smiling triumphantly, I pulled my hand back around to the front to look at…a rubber ducky.

"… Uh…" I said, staring at the yellow imposter. "You are _not _a pencil." I gave it a squeak before bursting into laughter to be joined by my friends and the countries. "Here, ducky," I said, handing the duck to Zara. "Have a ducky." Earning another bout of laughter from her.

"Ve, I did not know you were a duck!" Italy exclaimed at Zara, which made her only laugh harder.

"Long story," she said, and before she could elaborate, Paul and some more workers walked up to our table with huge platters filled with food in their hands. Even though I was starving, we were having such a good time that it'd seemed like hardly any time had passed at all. Not that I would've liked to postpone the food; Oh no, I was more than happy to except it now.

My eyes widened as my dish was placed in front of me. It was a huge, heaping plate of fettuccine alfrado, with a breaded chicken breast and shrimp, all topped with a dusting of parmesan cheese. My mouth literally hurt from watering so much. I inhaled the aroma of my dish, eyes rolling back in pleasure of the tantalizing smell. It took every ounce of my self-control to not dig in and wait for everyone to be served.

Zara was presented with her Parmesan Challenge, and she licked her lips with anticipation while my eyes bulged out of my head. The heap of pasta was _huge_! It'd take maybe _two_ big guys to eat it all…or one Zara.

Once everyone started, so did I. Sadly, I couldn't use the fun round little spoon thing with my fork that you sometimes get at Italian restaurants to spin up your noodles with since I only had one free hand, but I managed. I quickly spun up a forkful and popped it in my mouth. "Mmmm," I moaned softly as I sat back in my chair, chewing slowly and enjoying the blissfully delicious food. As soon as I swallowed, I filled my fork with more. I ate quickly like this for a while, satisfying my hunger before I slowed down and could focus on something other than my food.

This is when I figured out that Mari and Alex were fighting. I had completely missed the cause of the argument, as I have a tendency to enter, exit and reenter group conversations at weird times, but I figured it had something to do with the strawberry-war from before.

A plain noodle sailed through the air, hit Mari in the face and stuck there. A very POed Mari stood up from her chair, grabbed her untouched plate of spaghetti, walked over to Alex, and promptly dumped it on her head. "Waite!" she called to Paul, who was nearby but somehow hadn't seen what she'd just done. "May I have another order of spaghetti please?"

Paul sighed, wrote on his notepad before walking back down the stairs.

Once he was gone, Alex launched herself at Mari and knocked her to the ground. Yet another dust cloud ensued.

"Guys!" Safi yelled when she thought that it'd gone on long enough. "Do you _really_ want to get kicked out?"

The stopped fighting and looked at me. Then they looked at each other. They stayed frozen like that for a while. Then Alex picked the first noodle she'd thrown off Mari's face with her finger and popped it in her mouth. Mari didn't move and Alex froze as well. Suddenly, they burst out laughing, hugged and walked back to their seats.

The countries stared at them, but Safi, Zara and I just shrugged our shoulders and continued eating. This was normal behavior among my friends and I; making up suddenly for no discernible reason. Maybe it was because we hated being mad at each other? Meh, it didn't really matter.

My short attention span moving on, I looked around the table, noticing some funny occurrences. Japan and China seemed to be having a hard time with their forks, being used to eating with chopsticks after all, and found it easier to instead use two forks in a chopstick-like fashion. America was eating his steak, grumbling about the lack of burgers while chewing, a very messy process indeed. I couldn't look at _that_ for very long. Italy and Zara were going absolutely bonkers, shoving pasta down their throats, trying each other's, and even stealing some from the people around them; all when Zara was supposed to eat that huge plate of pasta. Meh, she'd manage. Safi sat quietly next to me, not saying anything as she ate he food. She never really talked much while she ate, no reason, she just did it. China however did not know this and her silence bothered him. "Are you alright-aru?" he asked her.

Safi glanced up from her food, nodding briefly at him before returning to her food.

China's brow furrowed in confusion. "Why are you not talking?" he asked persistently.

"Ahem," Mari cleared her throat after, swallowing some food before saying, "Safi doesn't talk much while she's eating. It's just a quirk of hers, right Safi?"

Safi nodded again, not bothering to look up from her food.

China still didn't look convinced. "Say _something_-aru!" he pleaded.

Safi swallowed her food, wiped her mouth with a napkin, looked up at him, smiled and said, "Hi China!" cutely and went right back to her food.

I chuckled at China's surprised expression, then I saw something reaching for my pasta out of the corner of my eye. "No!" I said, slapping away the offending fork with my own. "Bad girl!"

"Aw!" Zara whined. "Leesyyyyy!"

"It's my pasta and you can't have it!'

"Pleeeeease?"

"No."

"Pretty pleeeeease?"

"No!"

"Pretty pretty pleeeeeease?"

"NEIN!"

Every one of the countries stopped eating and looked at me, including Germany, who was just plain staring at me.

"… what?" I asked, not realizing what I'd just said.

"You just spoke in Mr. Germany's native ranguage." Japan explained.

"Ve!" Italy exclaimed. "You sounded like Germany when he's angry!"

"… Oh!" I said, just now realizing what I'd said. "I just- I mean- I didn't-"

"She does that," Zara explained with a laugh for me. "When she wants to say no and she _really_ means it, she'll say it in German."

"And it's even funnier when she shouts it in public!" Alex giggled.

"She meant no disrespect," Mari added quickly.

"It's just a quirk of hers." Safi said with a smile. "Right Lees?"

"… Right." I finished lamely. I looked in Germany's direction but was too embarrassed to look him in the eyes. "I just think German's a cool language, that's all." To give myself something to do, and to draw the attention away from me, I continued eating my pasta. Once everyone's conversations stared up again, I sighed with relief and tackled the task of cutting up my chicken with one hand. It was difficult, and I had to use my fork, but the chicken was wonderfully tender, so I managed.

I was slowing down, filling up with food. Zara meanwhile had been steadily working away at her Parmesan Challenge, when she hadn't been laughing or stealing other people's pasta. She was about 3/4ths of the way done, and she wasn't slowing down.

I chuckled at the sight of such a small girl eating so much food, but I had no doubts in her. Zara frikin' ate like a pro linebacker. Knowing her, she'd have no trouble finishing both her pasta _and_ her free desert. I hummed Eye of the tiger in encouragement, not that she needed it.

It was getting towards the end of the night and most of the countries and my friends were just finishing up their food. I was _full_; full to the brim and was _tired. _Some of it was because of the food, but most of it was because we'd had a long, eventful day and it was getting late. Because we were in public, I stayed sitting up, but what I wanted to do was go find a place to lie down. It seemed to me that I should be ashamed for eating so much. Weren't girls supposed to eat dainty foods like salad? I hated salad. Give me real food any day. I felt fat, immobile and exhausted. _Is this what being pregnant feels like?_ My groggy mind wondered. Then I realized that there was still about a forkful of fettuccine on my plate. I'd eaten everything; the chicken the shrimp, the rest of the pasta, everything but that little bit. I groaned inwardly and lifted my fork. It wasn't enough to take in a box and there was no way I was just going to waste this amazing food, no matter how full I was. I slowly scooped up the remaining noodles and brought them to my mouth. I took as deep a breath as I thought I could manage and ate it. Swallowing, I lifted my fork a bit and said "Yay," softly to no one in particular in 'celebration' of my accomplishment. I hadn't the energy to do anything more.

"YEAH!" I didn't even jump in my chair as Zara yelled in triumph. "I DID IT!" she exclaimed, jumping up from her chair and dancing wildly in celebration.

I and several other people gaped at Zara in astonishment. First, she'd actually been able to _eat_ that massive plate of pasta. I couldn't be prouder. Second, she still had the energy and mobility to jump up and dance.

"Ve, good job bella," Italy said sleepily as he began dozing off against Germany.

Paul walked over to us and stared at Zara's empty plate. "You actually managed to eat that?" he wondered aloud.

"That's right Paulie!" Zara exclaimed as she continued dancing. "I'm getting' a free desert! All right!"

Paul sighed, clearly not appreciating the nickname. "All t=right," he said. "What would you like?"

"The fudge-stuffed brownies!' Zara proclaimed as she sat back down. Then she looked around and saw many more empty plates and tired faces around the table and added, "To go, please."

Paul nodded and handed America the bill before walking off to get Zara's prize.

America took the bill and smiled at it. "I'll leave an extra-large tip; poor Paulie deserves it." To which we all agreed.

"*sigh* Paulie…" I heard Safi and Alex mumble in unison, pretty much asleep.

Everyone forced themselves up from the table in preparation to leave, some forcing each other to their feet. I tried to rise also, but the handcuffs kept me to the chair. "Germanyyyyyyyy," I said, moaning a bit as I yanked on the cuffs.

Germany looked up at me, shrugged Italy off him and walked over to me. "Had enough from one night?" he asked.

"Mmhm," I was so groggy I didn't even bother to give a smart reply. I just let Germany undo the cuffs, mumbled a thank you, stood up and walked with my friends and the countries towards the stairs.

Paul came up to us and asked for the bill. America handed it to him with a pat on the back, a knowing smirk on his face, but he didn't say anything.

Once we'd almost made it down the stairs, we heard Paul scream, "Oh my gosh! Guys! Look at this tip!" he appeared over the balcony, beaming hugely…and maybe tears in his eyes? "Thank you! Thank you sir! You have no idea what this means to me!"

Our country laughed. "Peace out dude!" he said, holding up a peace sign as he held the door for the rest of us to walk through.

Once we were out of the building, Britain said, "My gosh America! Just how much did you give the man?"

America smiled and looked over his shoulder at _Il Pomodoro_. Sounds of Paul's celebration could be heard from outside. "Just enough," he said.

The countries took us back to our new house. My friends and I were nearly falling asleep on our feet, so once we got in the door we walked directly into the unfurnished living room and flopped down into a pile on the carpet. Zara staggered over to the fridge and put her fudge-stuffed brownies in. I'd been able to convince her _not_ go and get a sugar-high right before we went to bed. Then she walked over to our pile and flopped down on top.

The countries watched us in amusement, but we were so tired we didn't really care.

"You ladies seem tired," Britain said, smiling kindly down at us as he stated the obvious. "So we'll let you sleep. There'll be a surprise here for you in the morning." He tossed a key to me, which I just barely caught. "Be sure to lock up. Sleep well." He said and began to usher the other countries towards the doors.

I groaned, wedging myself out from under my friends, staggered to my feet and followed the countries to the door. "G'nite," I said groggily. "Thanks for supper, and the house, and the breakfast, and so on, from all of us."

The countries smiled at me as they walked out the door. Germany was the last to leave. Seeing him made me remember something.

"Thanks for uncuffing me Germany!" I shouted after him as he walked down the path. "Guten nacht!"

Germany paused, turning to look at me funny. Then he gave a small smile. "Bitte schön." He said before turning back around and walked after the other countries.

I stared after him for a moment, my mouth open a bit. Slowly, I closed the door, locked it, and leaned against it. Did he just…smile?

"Whadid he say Leesy?" she asked sleepily from the pile as I walked over.

"Idk," I mumbled, nestling into my mound of 'migas. "I only got to take one quarter of Germany in sixth grade. But I think he actually smiled! Did you see that?"

Zara didn't answer; she was already asleep.

I managed a small smile. I sighed contentedly, snuggled down, yawned "I love you guys," randomly, and soon followed Zara's example.


	9. MINI chapter!

_**Stop what you're doing right now, hopeful that means reading my story, get up and do a five-second dance party! DO IT it makes a bad day so much better!**_

_**Katharonie**__**: You shall see! :3 Luckily I remembered to put that part in cuz I almost forgot it…**_

_**Sarpndo**__**: Because I am evil! MUAHAHAHAHAHA! If it makes you feel any better, I always ended up writing this part of the story while waiting for lunch, or dinner, or just food in general… TOTAL TORTURE! And not ONCE was it fettuccine alfrado! …Well, once it was, sort of. I basically just poured alfrado sauce over noodles and had chicken strips on the side. Not exactly restaurant quality…**_

_**TheAmericanNinja**__**: TOTALLY WAS! Lol yeah Lees' had quite a night. Don't tell her I said this but she had fun ;)**_

_**JCScannell**__**: Lol he sure gave her a hard time…which was so fun to write! XD**_

_**Oh! Btw I would like you to meet my friend **_MrsLoganLerman25_**! She's a good friend of mine and the actually plays Mari! She's a great author so you should TOTALLY read some of her stuff once she posts! DOOOOO IIIIIIIT!**_

_**On wid da story! Hasta la pasta!**_

"Leesy Leesy Lees! Gedup gedup gedup!"

"Nn shudup duckie…" I groaned, still half-asleep.

"But Leesyyyyyyyy!"

"Get yer buts outa here!" I moaned, chucking a pillow down at where Zara's voice was coming from. I snuggled down into my blankets and hugged my… _WAIT A COD-PICKIN' MINUTE!_

In a flash I sat up in bed, _my_ loft bed! In _my_ bright blue and sea green room! Hugging _my_ chestnut brown stuffed horse names Star that I've slept with since I was five! … Wait a minute; you didn't just hear that, did you? Good. Anyways, I was in _my _room!

"Zara," I said, stuffing Star under the covers. "… Are we home?"

My pint-sized, and still anime, buddy shook her head and beamed. "Nope! Look closer."

So I did. On the ceiling was my small, blue buckskin dream catcher above my head, which was normal, but the ceiling it hung from was sloped, which was not normal. The wall my loft bed was against looked to be nearly ten feet tall, while the opposite wall was only about six feet high. I climbed down my ladder and noticed a few more differences. My blue and sea green walls were covered with the posters of animals, mostly horses and birds, I'd been meaning to put up. My loft bed was taller, the top of it reaching about six feet, like I'd always wanted it to be. My floor was _not_ covered in papers like usual; instead they were organized neatly into the large box I'd always meant to put them in. In fact, the whole room was organized way better that I'd ever gotten it. It was as if my room had magically transported to our new house and had been adjusted in all the ways I would've wanted it to.

I finally stopped looking around and turned to Zara. "Did this happen to everybody?" I asked her.

Zara nodded eagerly. "Some see!" she said, grabbing me by the wrist and dragging me out of my room. She took me down the hall into another bedroom, where we found Mari, looking around and grinning even wider than usual. Her walls were colored a pale purple and the canopy on her bed matched as did the pull-apart curtains on her windows. There was also an ornate mirror, a big-ish closet, a long dresser and Mari's little sea creature and fairy figurines were everywhere.

"Isn't it great?" Mari giggled. "I've always wanted purple walls!"

"WOO HOO!" We heard a scream from next door. The three of us ran out of Mari's room and into the next room there we found Alex jumping on her circular bed. Also in her room was a desk, an awesome chair, a HUGE closet, and on the walls were posters of Justice Crew and The Wanted.

"It's my rooooooom!" she sing-songed. "It's! My! Room!"

All the noise made me think, _Where's Safi?_ So I went into another room and found Safi looking around, gazing at her room with her hands over her mouth. Her carpet was grassy green and her walls were sky blue, with a Wanted, J-Crew or 1D poster here and there. She had a window bed and outside the window were flower boxes filled with flowers. In a sun-filled corner was a small tree. It basically felt like we were outside.

"How did it get here?" she asked softly. "How did it get so perfect?"

"Hey guys!" Zara exclaimed before anyone could say anything. "Come see my room!" she skipped out the door and across the hall into her room and we followed. The walls were purple in her room…where it wasn't covered with posters of 1D. she had a loft bed and a mini fridge too. On the wall was a corkboard that held everything from jewelry to posters to CDs, and on the shelves were lots of movies.

Then Safi asked a very good question: "Did this only happen to the bedrooms?"

My friends and I looked at each other for a second, then we made a dash for the stairs. We ran down them as fast as we could without falling and dying and we went into the living room. There was Safi's round couch, only bigger, and it was facing a large flat screen TV from her house, with an impressive surround sound system and stacks of movies from all our houses, which added up to quite a few.

"… I wonder," Zara said to herself, then she and Alex looked at each other and dashed downstairs. Safi, Mari and I ran after them when we heard delighted screaming. Once we got downstairs, we saw another flat screen TV from my place, which was surrounded by gaming systems from all our houses. A Wii U from my house, and X-box 360 with Kinect from Safi's house, a PlayStation from Zara's place, and all of our videogames combined. There was also equipment for Guitar Hero's for different versions, including the Wii version from my place. There was also a floor hockey and a foosball tables from Mari's place. Last but certainly not least was the mother of all music players. It looked like, and probably was, a combination of all our boom box-type-thingies from all our houses combined into one big piece of machinery no doubt loud enough to wake the dead.

"Ohmigosh this is awesome!" Alex exclaimed, gazing around the large variety of electronics.

"Crazy," I said, gaping at the sound system. Oh how I wanted to plug in something heavy from Skillet, turn the bass up to the max and shake the glass. Screw it; why not shake the whole house?! I'd have fun with this. Oh how I'd have fun with this.

While my friends continued to look around the downstairs, I went up for the kitchen. I always woke up ravenous and despite the huge meal I'd had last night today was no exception. I knew that last time we checked the kitchen all that was in it were Zara's fudge-filled brownies in the fridge, but all the other stuff that had been magically transported here gave me hope. When I opened the fridge, I found that it was stuffed with food from all or our homes. The cupboards were full too, and in one I found what I was looking for.

"GUYS!" I yelled. "IM THE MORNIN', I'M MAKIN' WAFFLES!"

"**WAFFLES!**" Zara screamed from the basement before thundering up the stairs, closely trailed by the rest of our waffle-loving friends.

I laughed at the eagerness of my friends as I pulled out one, two, three, four, _five_ waffle irons, including Mari's super-awesome Mickey Mouse waffle iron. "Zara! List off ingredients for waffles!" I commanded.

"Mam yes mam!" Zara answered, napping her feat together and saluting.

"DON'T call me a mam do I look like a mam?" I asked.

"Yes mam! I mean no mam! I mean, yes sir! Ingredients include flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, eggs, milk and butter sir!"

"Now drop and give me twelve… eggs!"

My friends and I laughed and we went around the kitchen collecting the requited ingredients. Well, four of us did. Alex went around collecting condiments. Strawberries, whipped cream, butter, syrup, peanut butter, chocolate syrup, candy, the works. Our waffles aren't healthy, but they're YUMMY!

We decided to make a feast of waffles in celebration of all our stuff being transported here, so we plugged in all five waffle irons (we didn't care about the fire hazard) and filled a huge bowl with waffle batter. However, making all the waffles would take a while, so we decided that we'd man each other's irons while we took turns going up and showering. While making waffles, we turned on the radio and began flipping between stations, jamming to whatever was on. Whenever there wasn't any music downstairs, we could hear some upstairs, so I assumed that they'd found my shower radio. One by one my friends went up the stairs, showered, got dressed and came back down. And, not to be weird of anything, but my friends looked really good! Now that they were clean and in fresh clothes, there was almost an aura of good-looking-ness around them. Come to think of it, there probably was. Must've been the anime-ness of the world kicking in.

Like a nice friend I let my buddies go first, so I sighed with relief when it was finally my turn. I'd been wearing the same pajamas for three days now. My poor fuzzy cow pajama pants were covered in grass stairs, dirt stains, food stains and they stuck to my legs because of what was probably sweat. Gross! I couldn't wait to change out of them.

I quickly picked out some clothes before heading into the bathroom, and when I got there the radio was blaring some country station. I rolled my eyes, knowing that Mari had been here, and changed the station to something more pop/rock/rap-ish before entering the bliss of hot water.

"_I hear your hea-a-art beat to the beat of the drums (rum pum)/Oh, what a shame that you came here with someo-one/So while you're here in my a-a-arms/Let's make the most of the night like we're gonna die young!_" I sand as I stepped out of the shower with a towel wrapped around me. As the song continued, I brushed my teeth as I hummed along to the music, a messy process to say the least. I spat, sang some, rinsed, swishing to the music, spat again and kept singing. "_Young punks, shootin' shots/Safi's dog eats dirty socks/Music up, don't get caught/That's all the waffles that I've got/It's pretty obvious you want to drink Crush/You know I'm sexy and I'm makin' you blush! _I grinned at the utter absurdity of my changed lyrics, so glad that no one was listening.

I began dancing around the bathroom in happiness, slipping falling and laughing on the wet floor, all while singing, _Loo-king for some trouble tonight/Take my hand, I'll show you the wild, side/Like it's the last night of our lives/We'll keep dancing 'til we die!_ Gosh it felt good to be clean! Speaking of clean, _CLEAN CLOTHES!_ I quickly put on a pair of jeans that were neither tight nor loose, a blue and green tie-dye tank tip and a loose, light green shirt with feathers printed on it. I took a towel and rubbed it quickly over my blue, Anne Hathaway-style hair, grinning as it stuck up all over the place. I took out my hair goop that had been transported here and used it to fix my hair in a way that was messy but also looked good. Then I put in some brightly-colored feather earrings and I was done. I looked at myself in the mirror and liked what I saw. It was so easy to look good in this anime world! To express my happiness, I kicked my bare foot (socks are for squares…well, not literally) in the air and said, "Hya!" Once I'd gotten that out of my system, I shut off the radio, opened the door and presented myself to the world.

**BLOODY HECK LITERALLY!**

"HI LEES!" my friends, who were with the countries, screamed while grinning like madwomen when I walked out.

"OH GOSH!" my immediate response was to gasp as I jumped a foot in the air. I put one hand over my rapidly-pounding heart and the other I used to brace myself against the doorframe. "Don't DO that!" I yelled once I'd caught my breath "You guys almost gave me a heart attack!"

"I'm so sorry Leesy!" Safi cried as she glomped me. She had probably been dragged into this.

I sighed and then gasped again as the rest of my friends followed her example. Italy did too, but Germany pried him off. "We love you Leesy!" my friends yelled happily as they smothered me in love.

"Guys!" I exclaimed from under my pile of friends. "I feel the love already!'

My friends laughed and let go of me, totally _not sorry at all_.

I couldn't help but grin at them as I straitened my shirt. It's not like I wouldn't have done the same thing. Then I realized something. "… Wait," I said. "How long have you guys been standing out here?"

No one answered. My friends went into giggle fits beside me, America wore a mischievous grin on his face, Britain looked like he was holding back snickers, France had on a _very _pervy smile, Russia was smiling the same way he always did, China looked at me awkwardly, Italy stood there smiling idiotically, Japan looked uncomfortable and sensed the mood and refrained from speaking, and Germany wasn't looking at me.

I remembered what I'd been singing. _You know I'm sexy and I'm makin' you blush!_ Well _I_ was the one blushing now! "… O-Oh g-gosh-sh!" my voice quivered, and the next thing I knew I was hiding behind Safi like Italy with Germany. _Shoot! Why'd I do that?!_ Now I was even more embarrassed because of my cowardice. But at the same time, there was no way I was leaving my 'hiding' place.

"Aw, c'mon Lees!" Zara pulled me out from behind my Mari-shield, much to my displeasure. "It wasn't that bad!"

"Except for the sexy part," Alex snickered.

Upon hearing this, I quickly backed into the bathroom and shut the door.

"Leesy! Stop it!" Safi said, pushing the door back open.

"I need an emo sulking corner." I stated flatly.

"Later." Safi replied and pulled me back out of the bathroom. "For now, stay out here and be social."

"But I don't want tooooo!" I whined.

"We're sorry we…um, heard your singing, dude," America said, trying to keep back laughter.

I sighed, forcing a smile. "It's fine. I'll get over it."

No one answered. The countries just stood there staring at us for a long time. You could practically taste the awkwardness. Apparently the countries weren't aware that they were staring.

"STOP DUCKING STARING AT ME!" Zara finally screamed. No, she didn't swear. She really said 'ducking'.

This startled the heck out of the countries, Italy even hid behind Germany.

"Woah, easy ther educkie," Alex said, putting a hand on Zara's shoulder.

"S-Sorry," Britain said, still a bit shocked at Zara's outburst. "It's just, you ladies clean up nicely."

"Ve! We've only seen you pretty ladies all dirty!" Italy exclaimed happily as he came out from behind Germany. "Now you look even more pretty!"

Mari and Britain twitched at the improper English.

"Yeah! You chicks are hot!" America said loudly with a huge grin, which was soon whipped off his face when China smacked himn upside the head.

"America! That is not polite-aru!" China glanced at us. "E-Even if it is true."

"Ohonhonhon! You ladies are looking very sexy-OW!" France was saying with a very creepy smile only to get it punched off by Germany. "'Ey! What was zat for?!" he cried indignantly.

Germany said nothing, his face like stone. He glanced at me and I gave him a half-smile of thanks for shutting the creeper up. Maybe he took it the wrong way because he quickly looked away from me, looking very frustrated. Had I done something wrong? Was a half-smile offensive in Germany? I didn't see how it could be…

"So why are you guys here?" Safi got to the point.

"Werr," Japan said. "Since you girrs are not from here, we have decided that you wirr spend a day with each of us so that we can introduce you to this worrd."

"Sounds like fun!" Zara said with a grin.

"Yeah dudes!" America shouted, striking an epic pose. "You chicks gt to hang out with me first! We start out tomorrow yo!"

"YEAH!" Alex responded almost as enthusiastically as our country and they high-fived.

I couldn't help but grin also. America was obnoxious, loud and annoying…just like us! This was going to be fun!

"By the way," Mari said, interrupting Alex and America's happy-fest, addressing the rest of the countries. "Would any of you have anything to do with all our stuff being transported here by any chance?"

Britain smiled a bit, raising his hand and said, "I am afraid I am the culprit. Surprise!"

"You did this?" Mari asked, wide eyed. "How?"

"A magician never reveals his secret," he said, his smile turning a bit mischievous.

"Britain likes to practice magic, da." Russia said, smiling a bit wider.

The Brit was about to protest but before he could Mari gasped. "Magic?" she exclaimed. "You do magic?"

Britain looked around uncomfortably. "W-Well," he said. "The thing is, I-Oh!" The next thing he knew Mari was hugging him tightly.

"That's so cool!" she exclaimed. "Thank you for bringing our stuff here and making it better! Can I see you do magic sometime?"

Britain, stunned that he had been glomped, looked down at Mari with a shocked expression, who was looking up at him with puppy dog eyes, and boy was it working! "A-Alright," he said, and I got the idea from the countries' reactions that this was something that Britain would_ never_ allow.

Mari smiled, her eyes alight with anticipation as she let go of the Brit, who looked almost a bit…sad. He must not get a lot of hugs.

"I'm hungryyyyyyyy!" Zara whined randomly. "I want waffles!"

Safi giggled, turned to the countries and asked, "Would you like to join us for some waffles?"

"DUH!" America cried, did a fistpump and ran down the stairs, leaving a dust trail behind him…in the house.

I watched our uber-hyper country charge downstairs, trailed by an also hyper Alex, a waffle-ecstatic Zara, an anxious Safi, a laughing Mari, and a whole lot of other countries shaking their heads. "Tomorrow's gonna be one heck of a day huh?" I asked them.

Then countries turned to look at me, and in unison they said, "You have no idea."


	10. Day with an American Idiot

_**I AM SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG! First I had writer's block, & there's nothing to do about that but wait it out, THEN I have the school play taking over my life so I've been uber busy lately but thank you for being so patient!**_

**Sarpndo**_**-Haha yes! I myself am jealous of Lees for going to Hetalia… *emo corner***_

**JCSannel**_**-TOTALLY WAS! And it's not random! You just can't think as fast as I –SALAD!**_

**Fiora Braginski**_**- Thnx! Glad you liked! Btw love the Russia's last name in your penname! **_

_**I have some announcements to make! **_**MrsLoganLerman25**_** has posted her story! It's a Percy Jackson fanfic called **__**The Prophecy of **__**Five and it's super-duper awesome so you should go read and review it cuz she has no reviews yet!**_

_**I also have another friend I'd like to introduce to you! Her name is GhostlyQueen9 and she plays Safi! She's also a wonderful writer and has posted a story called **__**Five Deadly Thorns**__** and it is also awesome and at times cracktastic but it's a really good fic and ya'll should go read and review!**_

_**Unt now, A DAY VIZ AMERICA!**_

BANG!

SLAM!

"HEL-LO DUDETTES!"

I groaned and rolled over in bed onto my stomach. _Gosh he's loud,_ I thought as I pressed my face into my pillow. I mean, seriously, I could hear everything he did from upstairs. Heck, the nearest country could probably hear him! Were all us Americans this loud? It's not that I wasn't excited or anything, I really was! It was America for Stephano's sake! Today was going to be a blast! But it was early in the morning and my warm bed felt soooo good…

BANG!

"YO! WAKE UP!"

I jumped in bed at the sudden noise in my room. "Dude," I said, rubbing my eyes as I sat up and looked at the clock. Okay, so it _wasn't_ so early in the morning, but still. "Why so early? We're still in the AM's man!"

"HAHAHAHAHA!" America laughed loudly in my relatively small room. "No time to sleep in today dude! We got so much time and so little to do!"

I sighed. "Strike that." I used my finger to make circles in the air. "Reverse it."

America laughed loudly again and just like that he left.

I sighed again, thinking of oh how lucky I was that I was one of the nearest to the stairs and got to be woken first as I climbed down from my bed. I looked out in the hall and saw America and Alex waking people up. It was surprising to see Alex so bright eyed and bushy tailed; she was usually a worse morning person than me! But no, she was grinning almost giddily as she ran around waking people up.

Eventually everyone came out of their rooms. Mari was smiling cuz she's ridiculously happy in the morning, Zara looked pumped for the day, and Safi was radiating quiet excitement.

"All right dudettes!" America yelled as he clapped his hands together. "Get dressed and wash up and we'll be on our way!"

"What about breakfast?" Mari asked.

"We're eatin' in the car! Let's go go go!"

Energized by America's contagious enthusiasm, we all scurried off to our rooms.

"ALEX! Open the door!" I heard Zara scream as I came back out into the hallway. She was banging on the door to the bathroom and Safi and Mari were with her. "Gosh dangit we gotta get in there too!"

I sighed. Six bathrooms on one floor, but only one bathroom. _Who designed this house?*_

Eventually Alex did come out and the rest of us scrambled for the bathroom. After that it was kind of a rushed situation in the bathroom with everyone wanting to get in. Somehow though, we made it work and we were soon ready.

"Alright dudettes!" America exclaimed. Everybody in the car!" And with that he ran out the door with us at his heels.

Alex ran like a madwoman, screaming, "Shotgun!" and she reached the car amazingly fast. The rest of us would have to sit in the back, even though there were only three seats. We made it work, squishing close together, being glad that it wasn't all five of us back there, so no one would have to lay across the top of the others… YOU HEARD NOTHING!

"Zara want foooood," Zara moaned, earning an elbow from Mari, but America only laughed.

"Don't worry dude!" he said. "We're off to get some food right now at one of the best restaurants ever!"

Before anyone could ask what that was, America turned into a McDonald's parking lot. Most of us were game, but Safi frowned. You see, every morning when Safi woke up she drank a cup of chai tea, and chai tea was not offered at Mickey D's.

I leaned over and whispered in her ear, "You know, I'm sure they have iced tea here."

Safi sighed. "It's not the same," she muttered under her breath a bit darkly.

_Uh oh…_

We all went in and ordered our food. America ordered every breakfast sandwich on the menu.

"Geez," I said, watching as the lady behind the counter piled sandwich after sandwich onto America's tray. "What're you gonna do with all those?" Then I watched wide-eyed as America stuck an entire Egg McMuffin into his mouth with an 'Om!' sound.

"Ef derm, der," he said, his mouth grossly full of food.

As much as that disgusted me, I speak food and understood that he had said, 'Eat them, duh,' Shaking my head to dispel my utter shock at the sudden disappearance of the sandwich, I grabbed my bag of food. The smell emanating from it was so wonderful I stuck my face in to get a better whiff.

"Come on Lees," I heard Alex say and I lifted my head out as she grabbed my arm and lead my towards the rest of our group. "At least wait till we're at the table to chow down."

"But it's sooooo good!" I protested.

"Yes yes, Alex said, speaking to me as she would a child. "Now sit down and eat," and she sat in the booth and pulled me in after her.

I didn't know why, but the six of us decided on a booth, rather than a much easier table. Nope, instead we squeezed three people into each side and ate that way. America was squished between the window and Alex, though neither of them looked as if they found anything wrong with the situation at all, and I sat next to Alex on the edge. Across from me sat Safi, then Zara in the middle, and Mari had the other window.

I looked at Alex pleadingly. "Now?" I asked as pathetically as possible.

Alex smiled. "Now."

My hand dove into my bag and came out holding its prize: a Southern Style Chicken Biscuit.

"Lees," Zara said, pointing her straw threateningly at me. "If you go all Tobuscus on us…"

"Oh relax," I said, unwrapping my treasure. "I don't have any mashed potatoes or barbeque sauce."

"But you still have the-"

"DON'T SAY IT!" Mari and Safi stopped Zara.

I giggled but decided not to torture my friends today…yet. Instead I bit into my sandwich, savoring the flavor.

America, on the other hand, was stuffing whole sandwiches into his mouth and talked loudly, enthusiastically emphasizing his words by pounding his fist on the table. Normally I can speak food, but my powers were useless in understanding a single word he said. As disgusting as it was, the whole process was actually quite fascinating to watch. My friends and I stared in awe as America continued 'talking', watching as he ate sandwich after sandwich with only one bite each.

Finally, Mari'd had enough. "I can't understand a single word you're saying!" she protested. "Would you please just stop eating?"

America swallowed. "My vocabulary can be intimidating," he said, to which Mari let out an exasperated sigh. _Clearly_ he hadn't known Mari long enough. "I'll stop eating this absurd pile of sandwiches so you can focus better." Then he reached for his drink and I thought he would take a sip before starting.

Nope.

_Sluuuurp _"Shooting-" _sluuuurp _"burgers-" _sluuuurp _"games-" _sluuuurp_ "Tony-" _sluuuurp_ "Ah! You'll get to spend the whole day with the hero!"

We all gaped at him in silence.

"… What?" America asked after a moment of looking confused.

My friends and I looked at each other, then we shook our heads. "Nothing," I said, continuing to ear. "Absolutely nothing."

"So _this_ is what you meant!" Zara said as America pulled into another parking lot.

"Exactly!" America replied as he got out of the car. "I said we were going to the shooting range! Guns are awesome!"

"Shooting range?" Safi asked as she climbed out of the car. She looked…discombobulated. She wasn't confused of anything, but something was definitely not right with her. No chai tea. She'd probably only pretended to drink the iced tea. This was not good. "No no," Safi I said, waving her pointed fingers around. "No. There is no way I'm going to shoot a gun! Guns are bad! I don't know how to shoot one, and I have no desire to learn how!"

"Ooooooh no," I said, completely serious. "It's the Chai-Tea-Deficiancy-Syndrome."

"Uh oh," Mari said, her face registering genuine concern for the situation. "That's almost as bad as the Post-Midnight-Madness!"

"Oh goody!" Zara giggled hyper-ly, her expression betraying mischievous intent just begging to be let out. Then her face turned into a frown. "Although, it's not like it's the Past-Two-Pandemic."

America stared at us like we were lunatics…which we are. "What the heck are you dudes talking about?" he asked.

"Hopefully you'll get to find out," Alex giggled in anticipation, grabbing America's hand and leading him towards the gallery.

Zara's giggles turned wild. "C'mon Safi," She took Safi's hand and dragged out friend in the same direction, an almost evil aura floating around our ducky. **(Think Britain w/ Busby's chair…before Russia destroyed it XD)** ""Let's get you a gun!"

Safi was unusually stubborn. "No no no no NO!" she said louder than usual as she dug her heels into the ground, creating a screeching noise. "There's no way I'm shooting a gun!"

"This is not a good idea," Mari muttered like she dreaded what was to follow.

I shook my head and replied, "Nope nope nope." as we followed the rest of our friends.

"Lees! Catch your goggles!" I heard Zara yell and the next thing I knew something was flying towards my face.

I yelped and ducked a bit as I ninja-caught the pair of eye goggles. "Catch is complete! NO fumble!" I called back, beaming proudly as I triumphantly held up the goggles.

Alex turned and looked at America, who looked confused again. "It's always either a fumble or a ninja-catch with Lees," she explained. "It's always a guess which it'll be this time."

America gave a funny smile. "You dudes must be Minnesotans." He said randomly.

We all turned and gaped at him with faces only anime can produce.

"How did you know that we're from Minnesota?" Mari asked.

"Are you physic?!" Zara asked the less-logical question.

America laughed. "No I'm not physic, though that would be totally awesome," he answered. "I can tell by your accents!"

"Accents?" my friends and I all asked at once.

"Yeah!" The way you say 'nope' and 'yep' all the time, c_E_tch, y_E_r, and Minneso_D_a!"

"I never knew we had accents!" Alex said.

"Hahaha! Yeah, it's kind of cute!" America replied with a smile directed directly at Alex. Was it me, or was the ever-so-confident Alex's face getting red?

"L-Let's get our guns guys," Alex stuttered. Wait, now stuttering? _Alex_ stuttering? What was going on here?

_Hm…_

I'd shot a gun before, but it'd been a long time since then so Mari, Zara, Alex and America gave me a quick recap. I was trying to keep myself under control because I was feeling unrealistically bad-apple with a gun in my arms and was getting trigger-happy. Honestly, this was probably why I hadn't shot in so long.

Safi, on the other hand, utterly refused to come anywhere near any firearms and she strongly disapproved of us doing so. "You guys are all animal-murdering red-necks!"

"Oh c'mon Safi!" I said good-naturedly as I put my arms around her shoulders. "You know I'd never shoot anything alive!"

"I would!" Mari said peppy-ly with a huge grin as she pumped her gun.

I found this extremely comical and tried not to fall over laughing. "Remember when you brought that deer heart sandwich to lunch in elementary school?"

"Yuppers!" she replied. "No one would eat it! Including you!"

"Oh gosh no!" I answered with a laugh. Just the thought of it made me shudder. I'm squeamish.

"You guys are all sick!" Safi said disgustedly as she shook my arm off her shoulders. "I hope you all get shot in the foot! Or the head cuz the head would work too! That's what's going to happen to the poor deer you shoot! It's all Columbus' fault cuz he had a gun and he was a jerk to the Native Americans! Then everyone came over to America with their stupid guns and-"

"Safi you're going to offend America!" Mari protested, seeing how desperate the situation was becoming.

America however looked less offended and more confused, maybe even a bit curious. It was like he actually could not comprehend Safi's distaste for guns.

"Screw America!" Safi continued, becoming more and more fired up. "Americans need to stop it with their shotguns! They're idiots because-" She was cut off when Alex wrapped her arms around Safi's middle from behind and they both fell backwards with Safi in Alex's lap.

"Safi calm down!" Alex yelled but she was drowned out by Safi's… Wait a second, Safi was actually screaming! along with kicking the air and waving her arms wildly in efforts to escape.

None of us really knew what to do at that point. Sure Safi was neutralized for a moment but Alex couldn't hang onto her forever and people were staring. My friends and I were also staring mostly because it was completely and utterly shocking to see quiet Safi making such a racket. Not even Chai tea would help now; she was past the point of no return. Finally, one of us came up with a solution.

"SAFI!" Zara screamed at the top of her lungs. "FLOWERS!"

Safi froze immediately and stared at Zara. "Where?" she asked urgently.

"There!" Zara pointed to the side of the road at a public flower garden. Had that been there before?

Safi followed Zara's finger, and when she saw the garden she suddenly wrenched herself from Alex's grip and booked it towards the garden. When she got there, she ever-so-calmly knelt down in the green grass and began to smell the flowers. Her face was one of bliss, and I don't mean one of her substitution words. An aura of sparkliness surrounded our friend as she contentedly sat amongst the flowers. "You guys go have fun," she said simply, waving her hand at us without so much as looking our way. "I'll wait out here."

America's face was one of absolute dumbfoundation. "B-But, sh-she was just-! Why did-? How did-d-d-duwa?!"

My friends and I laughed at our country. "Come on America," Alex said, leading him away. "Let's get crackin'!"

America looked down at her, majorly confused. "Is this one of those things you get used to?" he asked.

At the same time, my friends and I answered, "Nope."

I was so excited to shoot, I barely remembered to put the noise-cancelling headphones on. _Can't have me going deaf now can we?_ I thought to myself giddily as I put them on. Shifting myself around so that I was lying on my stomach, I pretended I was a sniper on a mission. I loaded the gun and then scanned the terrain. Soon, I saw a great big, round, red and white-_Zombie!_ I thought to myself as I pulled the trigger. I originated, waiting for the bang, but…it never came. I gave my gun a confused look. Was something wrong, or was I just stupid? I jiggled my gun a bit before taking aim again and pulling the trigger.

Nothing. _Dang!_ "Erg, you suck," I growled at the gun before standing up. "Excuse me?" I said to a random guy. "Couldn't you help me with my gun please? I haven't used one in a while, and I think there might be something wrong with it."

The man came over to me and said something I didn't quite catch. "Huh? Wazzat?" I asked.

I saw the man sigh and he pointed to his ear.

It looked me a second to realize what he meant, then I realized that I still had the headphones on. "Oh, sorry," I said, a bit embarrassed as I slid them off my head. "It won't shoot," I said as I handed him my gun.

The man took it in his hands and inspected it for a moment before giving the barrel a good solid whack.

BANG

I jumped a foot in the air as _my_ gun suddenly went off.

"WOAH!" I heard someone yell. Fearing the worst, I whirled around and saw America hanging onto one of the wooden beams of the shelter we were in, legs spread wide. Behind him in the wooden wall was a bullet hole. If America hadn't jumped, the bullet would've hit his… _Oh NO!_

"YOU DIDN'T TELL ME IT WAS LOADED!" the man screamed at me.

This made me start to panic. "OHMIGOSHIMSORRYIMSORRYIMSORR Y!" I stared yelling insanely. _I almost killed a person! I almost killed America! I ALMOST KILLED OUR COUNTRY!_ I rushed over to America. "OHMIGOSH ARE YOU OKAY?!" I gasped.

America dropped from the beam and landed on his feet. "Whew! Dodged that bullet! Literally!" he laughed.

"HOW CAN YOU LAUGH AT A TIME LIKE THIS?!" I screamed at him. "I ALMOST KILLED YOU!"

"Woah!" America yelled just loud enough to silence me, putting his palms out in front of him. "Calm down there dudette! Everything's cool bra! Accidents happen!" In a softer voice, he said, "I'm a country, remember? I'm immortal. Although that would've hurt…a lot." which didn't help.

Breathing heavily, I sat down on a bench. "I think I'm done for the day," I said, fixating my eyes on the floor.

"Aw come on dude!" America said. "Ya gotta get back up on that horse yo!"

"Horse?" My head popped up and I looked around. Then I realized, "… Oh, you meant that metaphorically."

"Meta-what?"

"Anyway, not today," I shook my head.

Before America could protest any more, there was a bang and I heard an all-too familiar scream.

"ZARA!" In a flash I was on my feet and sprinting as fast as I could in the direction of the noise. _No. No no NO!_

"Ah! My foot! OW!" Zara was yelling when I found her. She was hunched over and clutching her right foot. Redness oozed between her fingers.

Although I was relieved that Zara hadn't shot herself in any potentially fatal places, the situation was still dangerous. Instinct kicked in and I was beside her literally before I had even realized that I'd done so. "Zara! Let me see!" I ordered, instinct completely cancelling out all my natural squeamishness.

"Oh. My. Gosh." I heard Mari say, and I knew that she was standing above me.

"Zara what happened-AUGH!" I heard Alex scream no doubt when she saw Zara's foot.

"I-It hurts!" Zara sobbed, pressing her face into her knees.

"Zara, It's going to be okay," I said, strangely calm and reassuring. "Now let me see your foot."

"B-But it-t hurts!"

"I can't help if you don't let me see it Zara."

"… O-Ok-kay…" Slowly, Zara removed her hands to reveal…

Wait a second.

"KETCHUP PACKETS?!" I shouted.

Just then Zara keeled over…laughing. "YOU GUYS SHOULDA SEEN YOUR FACES!" she howled, clutching her stomach and kicking her ketchup-stained feet in the air.

Suddenly Safi was beside me, breathing heavily like she'd just gone for a run. "I-" she panted. "I heard Zara scream I-Is she-?"

"Hi Safi!" Zara laughed as she looked up at our friend.

Safi's face flashed relief for a barely-visible millisecond, but then it turned to downright murderous. She stomped over to Zara and grabbed her by the collar. "You… youuuuUUUUUU!" she started to shout, but then suddenly she enveloped Zara in a hug. Equally as suddenly, Safi gripped Zara by the shoulders and shook her back and forth, screaming, "DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!"

"WhoahoahOAH!" Zara yelled as she was being shaken. "S-SAF-FI S-ST-TO-O-OP SH-SHAK-KING M-M-ME-EE-EE!"

Finally, Safi did as she asked and stopped shaking her. "Why wouldn't you do that?! I thought you were dead!"

Zara smirked a bit. "That's what you get for not shooting with us! _They_ at least knew I was pretending to shoot myself in the foot-AUGH!" and with that we all tackled Zara. "What is this for?!" She cried from beneath our pile.

"To punish you for scaring us so bad!" Mari answered, repeatedly patting Zara on the head, which she hates.

"Gaaaaaaaah! Alright alright! I'm sorry! Now let me up already!"

The rest of us couldn't help but laugh at her surrender and we each pulled her into a hug.

"Hahaha dude!" America laughed. "That was totally a great prank yo!"

"You're actually encouraging this?!" Safi asked, exasperated. "I'm done!" she turned around and walked away. "I'll be in the garden if you need me." She called over her shoulder.

Zara giggled at our friend's ragequit. Then, as quick as lightning, she changed the subject. "Alex!" she said. "I challenge thee to a shoot-off!"

Alex beamed. "You're on!" she replied, and with that they ran off for their guns, America not far behind.

Mari and I looked at each other.

"We should really-"

"Yeah, let's go."

When we reached them, Zara and Alex were getting their guns ready and we put our headphones on. The two got ready to start, nudging each other playfully as they waited for the signal.

"Alright dudes!" America exclaimed, pulling a whistle out of nowhere. "Whoever gets closest to the center wins! You each get five shots! Zara, you're up first!" Then he blew on the whistle much louder than necessary.

Five bullets later, there were only three holes in the target, all on the outer ring.

"Stupid gun!" Zara said angrily as Alex laughed. "There must be something wrong with it!"

"Suuuuuuure," Alex said with a smirk. "My turn!" she exclaimed, motioning for America to blow the whistle.

Five bullets later, there were only three more holes in the target, all on the outer ring.

"What the heck?!" Alex yelled, glaring at the laughing Zara. Then, I saw her expression change. "America," she said sweetly. "Will you help me?" She batted her eyelashes, making my bite back a 'PFFT!'.

"Sure thing!" America said with a huge grin. He stood behind Alex and held her arms in his as he showed her how to aim the gun.

Mari, Zara and I were nearly doubling over in attempts to keep back laughter. This was sooooooo great!

"Alright, now shoot!" America said, still holding her position with his arms.

BANG!

There was a new hole in the target, closer than the others, but still only one ring further in.

Alex didn't seem to care. "Wow!" She exclaimed, beaming. "You're such a good teacher!"

My eyes crossed and I bit down on my tongue. I saw what was going on, and I knew that Alex had gotten what she wanted, but I found the cliché situation pretty funny.

Without warning, Mari stood up. Not saying anything, she picked up her gun and raised it to her shoulder. After taking a second to aim, she fired.

BANG!

The hole that appeared was _waaaaay_ closer to the cente4r than the others had been.

Mari smirked at Alex, America and Zara's gaping faces as she blew non-existent smoke off her gun.

I couldn't help but give her a fistbump.

"DON'T YA WANT ME BAAAAAAYBAY! DON'T YA WANT ME OOOOOOOOOOOOH!"

Don't ask me why we were singing to an 80's song, but if you did anyway, the answer is: the 80's were AWESOME! I often wished that I was born in the 80's, but then I remembered the bomb threats and then I was good.

After stopping by the garden to pick up Safi, we'd stopped at Burger King on the way to America's so we were all singing around paper bags with fatty foods, the largest being America's. If he ate like this all the time, how he stayed thin I didn't know.

"DON'T YA WANT ME BAAAAAY-Oh hey! We're here!" America cut off the singing, turned off the car, (including the radio :'( ) and jumped out, the rest of us spilling out after him. As expected, America's house was rather large. That's all I have to say.

"Welcome to my house!" America exclaimed, spreading out his arms for emphasis. "Put your stuff anywhere! C'mon there's some friends I want ya to meet!" And with that he took off down the hallway.

The rest of us had to run fast, but we were finally able to catch up with our energetic (UNDERSTATEMENT) country. He was standing in his back yard, standing at the edge of a large swimming pool and looking at something in it. As we joined him at the pool, my eyes flew open wide when I fixated my eyes on what America was looking at. "… Oh… My… Gosh" What I saw was a rather small…cartoon WHALE!

"WHAT THE FLIP?!" My friends and I all yelled at the same time.

"Ooooooooooooooooooo!" the whale sang, smiling in a strangely human-like way.

"You have a whale?!" Zara asked the obvious.

"Hahahaha! Of course dude! The hero can have a whale if he wants to! It just takes a little thing called coffee!" America answered.

Now, I love whales. Absolutely adore them. Mari does too. But this whale…was strange. The thing was basically a sloppily-drawn whale, absolutely unidentifiable. Not to mention the fact that it smiled like a human. Maybe it was the coffee… Never the less, I was very jealous.

Suddenly, the whale swum up to the edge of the pool. Instinctively my friends and I all stepped back. America, however, ran right up to it and _glomped the whale._ "My friend!" he said happily as the whale sang, also happily. "Whale Dude!"

My friends and I all stared at America in utter disbelief. Finally, we all said at the same time, "Can I hug your whale?"

"Tony! Where are ya dude?" America called as he wandered around the halls.

"Who's Tony?" Safi asked, wringing water out of her shirt. There'd been a slight mishap. Apparently, unlike real whales, cartoon whales spouted water.

"He's a buddy of mine," America replied, looking over his shoulder at us for a brief second. Turning back around, he said, "Tony! There you are! I got some friends I want ya to meet! Yeah! The ones I was telling you about the other day." Our country turned to the side and revealed-

"An alien!" I exclaimed, stuck somewhere between excitement and fear. Standing in front of us was a small white extraterrestrial! He was about half America's height, had two small slits for nostrils and large red eyes, although they weren't menacing.

"… This is …Tony?" Mari asked, astonished. That's-"

"AMAZING!" I exclaimed as I knelt down in front of the creature, overtaken by sudden curiosity. "Hello?" I asked it. "Can you understand English?"

Without opening its mouth, if it even had one, Tony said a single word.

My expression must've been pretty darn funny, cuz my friends and America all busted out laughing.

"W-What did I do to deserve that?" I sputtered exasperatedly as I stood up and put my hands on my gips.

"Nothing!" America laughed. "That's pretty much all Tony ever says to strangers."

Tony confirmed this by repeating the word twice.

"Well!" Zara said with a grin. "I never knew aliens were such potty-mouths!"

"Haven't you ever seen Paul?" America asked, earning '_really?_' stares from all of us.

"Where did you get an alien?" Alex asked, ignoring America's previous comment.

"Haven't you ever heard of the Roswell incident?" our country asked.

My friends all turned to me, I being the resident alien-nerd. "Well, yeah," I answered. "But didn't the government say it was just a weather balloon or something?" Not bothering to mention that I never believed that cover-up for a second. They didn't need to know the _complete_ extent of my craziness.

At this, America's normally happy face fell. "Yeah," he said. "My boss wouldn't let me tell my citizens. He even tried to get me to believe that it was a balloon too! But I'm no idiot; I know a spaceship when I see one!"

"Okay, but why is…_he_ here?" Mari asked, seemingly not quite sure of her gender evaluation.

"He lives with me now!" America said, his usual happiness coming back. He knelt down beside Tony and put his arm around the alien's shoulders. "I've Americanized him!" he proclaimed loudly.

I wasn't so sure that was a good thing, but an alien _is_ an alien. "I have a question for you," I knelt down again so that I was eye-to huge, red eye with Tony. "Are the Transformers real?"

"But does that mean yes or no?!" I whined desperately as America continued leading my friends and I through his house.

"Yes!" Safi said, who was at my side and the only other resident Transfan. "We must know!"

"C'mon dudes!" America didn't even glance at Safi and I. "Let's go play some videogames while we eat!"

"You're evading the question!" I accused as we entered another room. "We know that the government's hiding them! Where is N.E.S.T. located?!"

"Tell us what Tony said! You have to tell us-Oo shiny!" Safi left my side to go chase something shiny with Zara (Dang you Chai Tea Deficiency syndrome!) sop I gave up.

Everyone flopped onto the couch and began to eat our food amongst the abundance of videogames.

"Alright!" America said, stuffing a hamburger down his throat. "Wa du ya wawa pay fas?"

"What do we wanna play first?" I asked.

"Wii Mario Karts!" Safi and Zara exclaimed at the same time and jumped for the controllers.

Sadly, I didn't get to the other controllers fast enough, so Mari and I watched and waited for our turns.

It wasn't too long before we heard a knock at the door.

"VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIt'sopenRRRRRYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEE EER!" America said between making racecar noises as he drove his virtual cart.

The door was then kicked open by someone with too-long sleeves holding a large crate with Asian writing on it that was blocking their face. "America!" A familiar voice said, then the person turned to the side and the box revealed China. "I've brought the shipments of Chai tea you've ordered!"

At the words 'Chai' and 'tea', Safi's controller dropped from her hands in slow motion. It fell in complete silence and hit the ground with a thunderous clattering. Slowly, quietly and calmly, she turned around to face China in an almost creepy way.

I knew that on the inside Safi was probably crying but also that she'd never ask if she could make some herself. "America," I said, trying to get our country's attention. When he didn't respond, I used my foot (it was closer than my hand) to knock the controller out of his hands.

"Hey!" he protested.

"Safi would like permission to make some Chai tea please," I said before he could complain any more.

America looked at me funny. "Why would she want that?" he asked. "And why doesn't she just ask herself?"

"DON'T MESS WITH THE WOMAN'S TEA OR YOU'LL REGRET IT!" Zara screamed, wayyyyy to into her game.

America looked confused until he saw Safi's unchanged expression, which scared him a bit. "Yeah," he said. "Go ahead dude." And he quickly picked his controller back up and tried desperately to catch up with the others in the game.

Calmly, Safi got up from the couch and walked over to China, who also looked a bit unnerved. He set the box down and opened it for her. "Here you go," he said, handing a package to her. "I'll show you to America's kitchen." And he lead her out of the room. Soon the two were back, both holding a cup of steaming Chai tea. Safi had a blissful look on her face, as if everything was finally right with the world now that she had her tea. She looked up at China as if he was her hero, and China smiled back at her. It almost seemed as if her happiness was what was making him happy.

_Hm._

The two sat down at a small table and began to converse. It was so weird to see Safi talk so freely with a person she barely knew, but I was also happy to see her loosed up with someone besides us.

Anyways, that left an open spot in the game I let Mari take it since I was having fun just watching our overenthusiastic anyway. Although, it wasn't long before we were interrupted again.

BANG

"G'DEYE!"

I jumped as the door was slammed open and whirled around at the sound of an Australian accent. Standing in the doorway was a man with thick eyebrow, although not as thick as Britain's, with brown hair eyes two ahoge, pale green eyes and an adhesive bandage across his nose.

"AN AUSTRALIAN!" Alex screamed and immediately she jumped up, dropped her controller and glomped the man.

"Whoa there little missy!" the Australian said good-naturedly with a smile. "I love a hug from a pretty girl as much as the next fella, but might I learn your name?"

"I'm Alexandra!" Alex squealed happily. "And you're an Australian!"

The Australian laughed. "Not just _any_ Austrayian mate, I'm THE Austrayia!"

Alex's jaw dropped. "No. Flippin'. Way." She said. "Safi! It's the real Australia!"

Safi sat in her seat, smiling on the outside but no doubt fangirling on the inside.

"Why hello there little missy!" America walked over to her with a dashing smile. "Might I have the pleasure of learning your name?"

Safi avoided eye contact, extremely nervous but also extremely happy.

"Her name is Safira," China answered for her. For some reason he wore a sour face and glared at the friendly Australian, and I wondered about the sudden mood change.

"Safi! He's got abs!" Alex said gleefully us she poked Australia's stomach, earning a facepalm from me. "Rock-hard abs!"

"What're you doin' here man?" America asked. He looked as if he was trying to be cheerful, but he kept glancing at Alex. Now what was _his_ issue?

"Oh I just thought I'd stop in for a spell mate," Australia grinned as if he didn't see America's 'disapproval' face. Come to think of it, he probably didn't. He seemed like that kind of guy. Not necessarily insensitive, just oblivious. "Austria told me there were some new girlies who knew our secret, so I decided to cfome meet them for myself! And who might you be missy?" he asked Zara.

"I…am… THE WINNER!" Zara finished the game, jumped up and screamed. She was the only one who hadn't put down her controller when Australia walked in. "I win! I win! You lose! You lose!" she sang as she jumped around.

"That's Zara," Mari explained, smiling at our little friend and then at Australia. "Hi, I'm Marina." She said as she took his hand.

"Nice to meet ya missy!" Australia said with a grin. "And how' bout you mate?" He looked at me.

Adaliz." I said with a grin, holding out my hand. "And since you're Australia, I have a question for you."

"Fire away mate!"

" Are yowies real?"

The look of surprise on Australia's face was so funny I couldn't help but laugh. "I'm sorry!" I said, waving my hands apologetically. "I'm just joshin' ya. It's nice to meet you."

Australia's face cleared itself of surprise and replaced itself with humor. "Ah, a joker ey? I can appreciate that. I'm quite the kidder myself."

"It's more fun that way." I agreed, reclining with a relaxed expression on my face. "In all seriousness though," I said. "Do they exist?"

"Ooooooooooookay Leesy," Alex pulled a very confused Australia away. "I think that's enough of your scifi fantasies for tonight."

I hugged, crossed my arms and turned away. Two chances for two of my biggest questions in life to be answered, but noooooo!

"Well, I'd best be off then," Australia said casually, replacing his confused face with his normal happy one. "Just came by to say g'deye to the newbies. Nice to see ya America, China. Later mates!" and with that he left.

"There! There! Green slugbug right there!"

"What? No way dude! That was totally blue!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Not!"

"Too!"

"Suhduh," I mumbled 'shudup' as I very tiredly gnawed on my toasted grilled-chicken-and-cheddar-footlong-on-Italian Herbs& Cheese-sub. I was exhausted, as were Mari, Safi and Zara too. It'd gotten really late while we were at America's place. China'd left a while ago, much to Safi's disappointment, and we'd spend hours just playing videogames with our admittedly fun country. To top that off, we're all lively videogamers, so the games hadn't been without lots of movement, which is why we were so exhausted.

Except, apparently, for Alex and America. Those two were still going strong, playing their car games on the drive back to our place. They were waving their arms around, Subway's splattering everywhere, but America didn't care. Which was good because we're not tidy. At all. We're like boys. I'm serious.

Zara was asleep on my shoulder, and Safi was cuddled between Mari and Zara. Mari and I were propped against our windows, trying desperately not to fall asleep as well.

Soon we got home, since I guess it was our home now, and we thanked America for the great day we'd had.

"It was so much fun!" Alex exclaimed. "Let's do it again sometime!"

America beamed hugely. "For sure!" he said. "But as for tomorrow, you're Iggy's, and I have just the thing for that!" America reached behind him and pulled out something I couldn't see.

"Oh no," Alex said, looking at what America held. "I don't-"

"No no, not for you!" America laughed. "I follow my own laws." He shook his head. "No, this is for Britain." He handed the item to Alex. "You keep this hidden until the righty time comes, okay?"

"How will I know when it's the right time?" Ales asked.

"Oh, you'll know," America said with a wink. It was dark out, and I was soooo tired, so I couldn't tell for sure, but I thought Alex might've been blushing. "Alright dudettes!" America yelled as he started walking back towards his car. "Have a good day with Iggy tomorrow! Hopefully what I gave you will make the day more…interesting. Seeya later!" and he got in his car and drove off.

My friends and I went inside our house, remembering our hectic day. Since it was already late, we all headed straight for bed. As I put on my pajamas and climbed up into my bed, I reflected on the day. Safi'd almost had a mental breakdown, I'd almost shot America in a bad spot, we'd thought Zara had shot herself in the foot, Mari showed what a great shot she was, we'd sung to the 80's, we'd hugged a whale, I'd been cussed out by an alien, and I'd probably scared away a potential Australian friend.

So overall a pretty good day!


	11. What Not to Do in Britain

**Sarpndo-**_**You shall seeeee! ;)**_

**Atlantic Jewel-**_**Lol yup! My friends demanded that a certain Australian enter the scene ;) YUS GO 80'S MUSIC! And you know the TF's are real! They're too awesome to not be!**_

**Transformersbaby-**_**Me neither! Although I got a long ways to go…**_

**Face15-**_**Thnx! Lol yeah, I'm no good a gradual romance so I thought "Oh screw it" Lol Im afraid I cannot take credit for Zara's prank though. It was Safi's idea…sort of. But the ketchup packets belong to Hot Fuz!**_

**Terrifyingbeauty-**_**I know I tryyyyyyyy!**_

_**Oh btw I regret to inform you that I will be changing this fic's rating to T because I'm just getting to paranoid about its K+ rating. Don't worry, this story isn't going to turn into a lemon or anything XP but I need a little breathing room. Countries gotta swear, (although I'll keep doing this: F***), gotta drink, and some of them gotsta be pervs *eyeroll*. But overall it shouldn't affect my writing style so please try to stick with me!**_

_**Thnx and enjoy the show!**_

Very, very quietly, we opened the door and snuck into Alex's room. She was still asleep on that wonderful round bed of hers. I grinned in anticipation, my friends and I shushing each other. Gently, we stroked her arms and head, and then we began to sing softly, although in a rather unorganized way…

**Zara:** It's time to get up, in the morning.

**Safi:** In the morning.

**Mari:** Got MacDonald's breakfast for you.

**Me:** Just for you.

**Zara:** Or any other brand…

**Safi:** We drove two miles just to get it.

**Mari:** So you'd better get up and eat it.

**Me & Zara:** You don't wanna be a selfish lazy (crazy) girl… (Alex)

Alex's bed looked soooo soft and comfy. Was it bouncy too? Time to find out!

**All:** So we gotta get up! (Get) Time to get up! It's time to get up! It's time to get up! IT'S. TIME. TO. GET. UP. It's time to get up! (time to get up)

**Safi:** IT'S TIME TO GET UP!

**Mari & Me: **IT'S TIME!

**Zara:** It's time to get up

**Safi: **It's time toooo

**Mari: **SHH!

Everyone stopped screaming and jumping on Alex and her bed and we returned to the softer volume of before, although we didn't get off her bed.

**Me:** Get up.

**Zara: **It's time.

**Safi:** Doobie doo

**Mari & Me:** Waaaaaaake (geeeet) UUUP…

"Time to get up!" Alex exclaimed as she sprung out from under the covers, spreading her arms wide.

"YAY!" We all yelled and laughed together, continuing to jump on Alex's bed, this time her with us.

"Yay for waking up to One Direction!" Zara yelled happily.

"Yay for British stuff!" Mari shouted, equally as happy. "Yay for getting to see him today!"

"Nyaaa the British are comin' the British are comin'!" I yelled as I launched off Alex's bed, holding my arms out to my sides as I flew out of her room and into the hallway. Making airplane noises, I kept my arms out as I ran down the hall, pretending that I was a F-22 like the Flying Dorito of Doom. That's right. I'm five. GET OVER IT.

At the sounds of other airplane noises, I looked over my shoulder to see my friends copying me. "Red tails! Attack!" I yelled as I lead the way sown the spiral staircase, my flock of featherless flying friends (**Mari Mari! I made an alliteration! [Mari] That's nice Lees. Now go back to the story. [Me] Oh poop.**) right on my tail. Like a rambunctious little kid, I ran up the awesome circle couch and jumped off the back. For a second, as I flew through the air, I touched greatness. Then my feet hit the cold floor.

But I didn't have time to be disappointed because I heard Zara yell "Target acquired!" Before I knew what was happening, I was knocked to the floor and I landed flat on my face with something heavy on my back, the wind knocked out of me.

"Target has been destroyed! Boo-yah!"

"*gasp* Zara! Get off!" I yelled.

"No-can-do Leesy!" I could hear Zara's triumphant smile. "You're _my_ territory now!"

Before I could protest any further, a non-female voice screamed. "WHAT THE BLOODY H*** IS GOING ON?!"

I turned my head and looked up as Mari yelled, "Hi Britain!" Sure enough, there was Mr. Eyebrows himself, standing in our living room, staring at us like the crazy people we are.

" 'Sup Iggy?" I grunted and slapped the floor weakly in an attempt to wave.

A brief look of irritation crossed Britain's face as he searched for the source of the sound. When he saw me there on the floor, his big ol' eyebrows shot up in surprise. Still, he said, "Please don't call me that," before he told Zara, "I don't think being sat on is a very comfortable position for her."

"You'd be surprised how much she likes it when I'm on top of her." I heard Zara respond as I felt her pat my head.

"ZaraAAA!" I screamed as I thrust myself to my hands and knees quickly, knocking Zara off my back. "That's so sick! Why would you even say something like that?!"

Zara didn't even bother to get up; she just rolled around on the floor laughing. "Get your mind out of the gutter!" she yelled.

"Who got it in there in the first place?!" I countered as I stood up and planted my foot firmly on Zara's stomach.

"Oof! Aughahahahaha!" Zara let out a puff of air when I put my foot on her stomach, but she kept laughing all the same.

Britain watched this whole escapade with a 'Well-that's-bizarre' look on his face until Mari drew his attention away.

"We're so glad you're here!" she exclaimed as she glomped him.

"Th-thank you, I'm glad to be here," he said with a small smile.

Mari returned it with a flash of her own pearly whites. "Have you eaten yet?" she asked.

"Not quite yet. I figured I'd take you girls out for some British cuisine."

"You don't have to do that! Why don't we make you break-" She glanced at her watch. "Well, brunch I guess. Why don't we make you some brunch here?"

"Oh no, thank you, but the gentleman should really provide the food."

"Nonsense! We'll be with you all day! The least we can do is make you some brunch!" Mari turned her smile to us. "Come on guys! Let's go get some food going!"

At first I didn't completely comprehend Mari's genius. Sure making breakfast here would be cheaper for Britain and probably healthier for everyone, but…. Wait, healthier. _That's it!_ We'd _definitely _stay healthier if we didn't eat Britain's food!

Naturally, we got to work right away.

"So are we making waffles, pancakes of French toast?" Safi asked.

"WAFFLES!' Zara immediately exclaimed.

"No, we had waffles last time Britain was over," Alex pointed out.

"Y'allz better shut up so I don't launch into song!" I said with a laugh. Sobering, I said. "I say pancakes." Leaning closer in because our kitchen was open and I didn't necessarily want Britain to hear this, I whispered, "I doubt Britain would care for the wonderful toast, whether we call it French of Freedom."

"Ze Lees makes a point!" Mari stated with a grin. "Pancakes it is! Some eggs would be good too. Hey Britain!" she called over to the living room. "How do you like your eggs?"

"From a chicken," Zara muttered under her breath and my friends and I laughed.

Britain's head popped out around the corner, a bit of a surprised look on his face. "Um, scrambled is fine love" he answered.

"… Love?" Safi asked, soft enough for only my friends and I to hear as we all turned to get to work.

Mari's face looked puzzled for a moment, but soon realization spread across her face, along with a good amount of redness. "I-It's just something the Brits say," she stammered, hurrying to get started on the food.

The rest of us laughed.

"Question Britain." Alex said, pulling a hoodie on over her Wanted shirt. "How did you get in here anyway?"

"Yeah Britain!" Zara added, decked out in her Nial shirt. "You a lock picker?"

Britain smiled sarcastically. "Yes, I used my lock-picking skills when I have the house keys right here. He pulled four identical keys out of his pocket. "America got in yesterday because you forgot to lock the doors. You'd best not do that again. Here, I finally got the replicas made." He turned to me. "Do you still have the one I gave you two nights ago?"

I had to think about it, but eventually I remembered that I'd left it on the counter and I went to get it while. Britain handed out the rest of the keys to my friends. The only thing was, I thought I'd left it on the counter… Hm, well I was notorious for loosing things and finding them in obvious places later. _I'm sure it'll turn up,_ I thought as I followed Britain and my friends out the door.

"So where's your car?" Safi asked, straitening her One Direction shirt.

"I didn't bring my car today." Britain asked.

"Then how are we getting you your place?" Alex asked. "We're walking" Britain answered simply.

"Walking?" Mari asked. She had Harry Potter sunglasses on her head, matching her Harry Potter shirt. "How are we going to get all the way to your place by walking?"

"Don't you remember?" Britain asked. "Distance is different for countries."

"What about the Atlantic Ocean?" Safi asked.

Britain paused for a moment, thinking. "It's best not to think very hard about it."

I shrugged nothing British on me. "Good enough for me Iggy."

Britain scowled at me. "Please don't call me that."

I got an idea. Taking up a blank face since I can't pull off an innocent face like Safi, I said, "What nickname?" hoping to convince him that I was really that stupid.

Britain's huge eyebrows mushed together on his face. "You know perfectly well what nickname!" he exclaimed.

"Huh?" I said as dumbly as I could manage without being unbelievable or laughing.

Now Britain was making incomprehensible sounds of anger, while I tried desperately just to keep my face strait by biting down on my tongue nearly hard enough to draw blood, while my friends snickered around me. "Are you serious?!" Britain fumed. "Can you possibly be as stupid as that American and that Italian?!"

Inwardly I wondered if I should be offended since I was both, but outwardly I tried to look as close to oblivious as I could get.

Finally, Britain calmed down and sighed. "Iggy." He muttered under his breath.

"Huh? Whadid you say?"

"Iggy! I said Iggy, alright?! Iggy Iggy IGGY!"

"… Mission accomplished." I said, briefly snapping back in a normal, satisfied me before my friends and I broke out into an absolute laughing fit.

"C-Come on Britain," Mari tried to keep her laughter down as she took Britain's arm and turned him away. "Why don't you take us to your place now?"

Britain grumbled a bit under his breath, muttering something about 'Yankees', and I was tempted to call him a limey, but I held my tongue.

Instead, Safi, Zara, Alex and I entertained ourselves by singing different One Direction and the Wanted songs as we followed Britain. Mari stayed up front with him, conversing with him about this and that. Before we knew it, we were actually strolling through the streets of London.

"Wh-where did… H-how did…" Mari stammered, completely flabbergasted like the rest of us.

"Britain's magical!" Zara exclaimed excitedly, jumping up and down in happiness.

Safi gasped. "That's the first time we've ever said that and it's been true!"

"This day shall go down in history!" Alex proclaimed, striking a familiarly epic pose.

Britain looked a bit proud of himself, like he enjoyed our excitement over something that was so simple for him. "Shall I give you a tour then?" he asked.

"Please do!" Mari said with an excited grin.

Britain gave her a small smile back, a real one not a self-satisfied one, and offered his arm to her.

Mari took it tentatively, turning her face away for a bit and I could see her blushing madly. "He's just being a gentleman." I heard her mutter repeatedly, like she was trying to convince herself.

We hadn't been walking for long when I realized how unusually quiet my friends were being. I mean, it _is _us after all. "Why so quiet guys?" I asked as I turned around to face…the air.

"OMIGOSH THEY'RE GONE!" I screamed immediately.

"WHAT?!" Mari yelled, whirling around to also see that Safi, Alex and Zara were _all gone._ "Where'd they go?!"

"N-Now don't panic!" Britain said, trying to calm Mari down. "I'm sure they're around here somewhere.

Meanwhile, I had no one to comfort me, so I was having a mental breakdown somewhat similar to when mothers realize that their child has gone missing. What if they'd been- _LEES YOU'VE BEEN WATCHING TOO MUCH TAKEN! _I immediately thrust that thought out of my mind. _It's an anime, and a comedy I'm sure._ "We have to find them!" I exclaimed, going into calm-through-crisis mode. "They could be anywhere!"

"Let's go!" Mari yelled, grabbing Britain and dragging him along as she and I sprinted down the street, calling for our friends.

"Here ducky ducky! Safi! Alex! Where are you?!"

"Red Robin!"…

"Flowers! Australians! Waffles!"

"What's the capitol of Pittsburg?!" "Potatoes!"

I whirled around, my call having been answered, but I only saw Mari. "… Oh, that's right. That's just our thing."

We kept on running and calling, and dragging poor Britain along with us, until a bench told us to "Shut the flip up!"

… Wait.

Mari and I skidded to a halt, but Britain kept going. He flung forward on momentum, but Mari clung on to his hand none the less. In result, Britain snapped backwards as if Mari's arm was elastic and he smacked into her, knocking them both to the ground. It reminded me of One Piece.

Anyway, I looked at the park bench and sure enough, three pairs of eyes were peeking out from behind it.

"There you guys are!" I exclaimed, relieved but exasperated at their safety at the same time. "What are you guys doing?!"

They giggled. "Watching the show," Ales said, pointing at the ground behind me.

I followed her finger and saw Britain and Mari in a very awkward position. They were both on the ground, Britain was sprawled out on top of Mar, and both of them were moaning. Britain had a rather large, round bump on his head. A small crowd of Brits, all with rather thick eyebrows, were gathering around the pair, uttering exclamations such as, "By George!" and "Blimey!"

It was _extremely_ funny, but I didn't want Mari to get too embarrassed, so I channeled Cal Lightman and let loose a heavy British accent. "Oi! Move along now! Nothin' to see 'ere!" I said loudly, shooing the crowd away, trying to keep the rest of my Lightman imitation at bay. Sadly I didn't need to channel all of his weirdness, just the accent.

Once the spectators had dispersed, I pulled Britain off of Mari and rolled him onto the sidewalk. I grabbed Mari's arms, slung one over my shoulder and pulled her to her feet"

She moaned. "What happened?"

"I'll explain later," I said as I let go and Mari steadied herself. "But we found the guys-WHAT?!" I screamed as I turned to see that there was no one behind the bench.

"Where'd they go?!" Mari exclaimed, looking behind, under and around the park bench.

"Why do they keep running off?..." I wondered.

Mari shook her head. "That doesn't matter now. What matters is that we find them. "Where's Britain?"

I pointed to the sorry sap on the ground.

Mari gasped when she saw him. "Britain! Are you okay?!"

"Mrs. Fairy! Mrs. Fairy! Ahahahahaha!" Britain laughed in his sleep.

Without saying a word, Mari and I picked him up. I threw Britain's knees over my shoulders, grabbing his legs as Mar wrapped her arms around his armpits. Just like that, we ran off to look for our friends…again.

Oddly enough, they found us first.

"Mari! Leesy!" Safi yelled as she ran up to us.

"Safi!" I yelled as I dropped Britain and glomped Safi.

Mari was a little nicer than me, so she actually set Britain down gently before also glomping Safi.

"Are you alright? Did you get doped-up?" I asked.

"I'm fine, and…what?" Safi asked. She shook her head. "Never mind. You gotta come hop us! Zara has-… What happened to him?" she pointed at the Brit.

"Later." Mari stated quickly. "What happened to Zara?"

Safi's eyes widened in remembrance. "You have to come quick! Come on!" So she took up Britain's legs, Mari took up his head again, and I got underneath and supported his torso.

Safi led us down the street and to the park, where we found Alex and Zara. Alex was literally rolling on the ground, laughing as Zara shook a fake blond boy by the collar. "WHERE'S THE REAL NIAL?!" she screamed.

Quickly, the three of us ran across the street with Britain, and Mari and Safi set him down on a park bench while I kept running towards Zara and tackled her off the boy and to the ground.

"He's an imposter!" Zara snarled as she fought to escape my grip and grab the boy. "Let me at him!'

The boy scuffled away, he's eyes filled with real terror. "Y-You're insane!" he yelled as he scrambled to his feet and sprinted away.

"Lees! You let him get away!" Zara screamed.

I sighed. "I know," I said, watching Safi calm Alex down while Mari stayed with Britain. "But we have bigger problems. We have to take our guide home."

Eventually, Safi and I got Zara and Alex to come back to Britain and Mari. Once we were all together, we got right to work. In Britain's pocket we found his wallet, which contained his address. We consulted a 'bobbie', (Safi had to cover Zara's mouth to keep her from laughing.), which is a British cop, and luckily the place wasn't far from here. The bobbie did question why Britain was knocked out, but luckily Alex covered that. "Drunk." She said. "A little early for that, I know. That's what we told him." He offered to call a cab for us but we didn't know if anything in Britain's home would reveal that he is a country so we insisted that we could take him there ourselves. Following the cop's directions, we soon found Britain's house. Searching his pockets again, Zara found his house key and opened the door while the rest of us carried Britain inside and dumped him on the nearest couch.

"Safi," I panted. Carrying a guy around, even if you had your friends with and it wasn't that far, was a difficult feat. "Go see if you can make some tea. Zara, help her look for the kitchen, but leave the actual cooking to Safi. Alex, you come with me. Mari, stay here with Britain."

Alex and I soon found the bathroom, and she grabbed the first aid kit while I took a wet washrag and we ran back to Mari, who immediately bandaged the rather bulbous bump on his head and put the wet washrag on his forehead.

Moaning a bit, Britain opened his eyes. "What the-" he said. "How'd I get home? What happened?"

"You hit your head," Mari explained. "We found everyone else and then brought you home."

"Erg," Britain grunted sitting himself up as Safi and Zara re-entered the room with a full tea set, complete with sugar, cream and a full pot of tea. "Why were you running?" he asked the two of them and Alex.

The three of them looked at each other, and I had a feeling I knew why. "WE…may hace been looking for One Direction." Zara said.

"And the Wanted." Safi added.

Britain sighed. "You do realize that the chances of either of those groups being out in public in London are very slim right?"

"Hey, peeps' gotta dream." She said. "Besides, this is an anime."

Sighing again, Britain said. "Well, thank you all for taking me home. I must admit that I feel rather foolish now." He admitted, blushing slightly. Then he saw the tea set. "Ah, I see that you have made tea." He said, looking at the clock. "Right on time too." He took a cup.

Safi's eyes widened and she reached out as if to stop him, but Britain began talking again before she could. "Tea is obviously better than coffee, don't you think?" and he took a sip. Suddenly, Britain's huge eyebrows shot up as his eyes went comically wide. "Hot-hot-hot-hot-ho—...!" he sputtered as he spit out the tea. Once the hot liquid was out, Britain cleared his throat, clearly embarrassed. "First of all, pour the milk ahead," he said with a bit of a sheepish smile as Safi handed the cream to him and my friends and I couldn't help but giggle a bit.

"Um Britain?" Mari said, trying to hold back her everlasting smile. "You have a little bit of tea on your shirt.

Britain looked down and his face went a bit red when he saw just how much 'a little bit of' tea was on his shirt. "If I may excuse myself,' he said as he stood up. "I think I'll go change new." And with that he sort of speed-walked out of the room.

Meanwhile, the rest of us relaxed. Safi passed out tea to everyone as we sat back and reflected on all that had just happened. While I was dumping a large amount of cream and sugar into my tea, since I had never had enough tea to know if I liked it or not, I noticed that a look of first realization and then mischievousness crossed across her face.

"Guys," she said, breaking the silence. "I think I know what to use this for now." Out of her pocket, Alex pulled a small, black flask.

"Alex! Safi gasped. "You're not supposed to drink! Remember the energy drinks escapade?"

"Best. Day. Ever." Zara giggled.

"Not for me!" Alex exclaimed to Safi as she wrestled with her to keep the flask out of Safi's hands. "For _him_!" she jerked her head towards the hall by which Britain had left the room.

"… You're going to spike his tea?" I asked.

Alex nodded, her grin becoming infectious.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Mari said warily. "Hasn't he been through enough today?"

"Aw c'mon!" Alex said. "He's fine now. You saw how fast he recovered. Besides, America said that this would make today more interesting. That must mean that Britain's reaction to stuff like this is really over the top! Don't you wanna see it?"

I was torn. Sure, it was kind of mean, but I really wanted to see what would happen…

"Do it, do it, do it," Zara began chanting, pounding lightly on the table. I soon found myself chanting along with her.

Safi too looked conflicted, but she was quickly coming over to the dark side. "Do it, do it, do it," she joined in.

Mari looked extremely nervous and conflicted at the same time, however she too looked like she wanted to know what would happen. "Oh, just hurry up and do it before I change my mind," she said, forcing herself to look away.

"Okay," Alex giggled. "Here I go!" And she proceeded to pour as much alcohol as could be held in the teacup without looking suspicious.

No sooner than the flask was back in Alex's pocket did Britain come back with a clean shirt on. "I'm terribly sorry about that," Britain said as he sat down with us. "But at least now we can begin." He took a sip from his tea and made a funny face. I stiffened. "Hm, it's got an…interesting flavor to it." He stated, taking another sip. "Not half bad though," and he continued drinking.

Subconsciously sipping my 'tea', I watched Britain intently. How strong was the stuff in the flask? When would it take affect? How strongly would Britain react? These questions were to be answered momentarily.

"Wow," Britain said, sinking back into his chair instead of sitting up strait like a sir. "I haven't had tea this good since…since…since I don't know when!" he took a sip. "Reminds me of the time I went drinking with America." Britain chuckled, staring off into space as if remembering better times. "Bloody wanker, that one. I raised him you know, and what good did I ever get from it?" Britain drained his cup. "Ah, but he was so adorable as a child." Suddenly, his eyes widened. "I have a picture of him! I'll be right back!" and with that Britain ran out of the room, strangely energized.

"More! Give him more!" Zara giggled madly.

"Um, guys, I don't think-" Mari tried to protest, but Alex was already filling Britain's cup and Safi was putting in just enough tea to make it look believable.

Britain came in quicker this time, so Alex quickly tossed the flask to me. I tried to keep my giggles down as Britain took another sip of 'teat. He set the picture down on the table. The picture was of an adorable kid-America sitting on the lap of an actually happy-looking Britain.

"Lookit tha' git," Britain's accent was really coming through now. "Freaking cute, 'e was," Britain drained his cup. "But 'e grew up so fahst! One day I leave 'an he's just a lad, I come back later and suddenly 'e's taller than me!" Britain stretched his hand up to indicate America's height, but he leaned back too far and fell off his chair.

While Mari was trying to help him up, I tossed the flask back to Alex and she filled Britain's cup.

Once Mari saw what Alex was doing, she made fast cutting motions with her hands. "No more!" she hissed franticly.

"Last one!" Alex giggled back like the maniac she was.

I probably shouldn't judge; I wasn't exactly doing anything to help.

Mari yanked Britain upwards by his arm, and the Brit scrabbled clumsily at the table. Somehow, she got him back into his chair, where he sat all sprawled out. Safi hadn't had time to put any tea in Britain's cup, but he was already so drunk that he didn't even notice that his tea was 100% _not tea_ as he chugged the whole thing down in one gulp. He also didn't notice how Alex, Safi, Zara and I were leaning on each other in some sort of a pile, trying desperately not to burst out laughing.

"Lookat the time! A'ight let's go!" Britain started to get up, but he tripped over his own chair and down he went yet again. He was topping both Zara and I in clumsiness.

Mari rushed to catch the Brit and she ended up with one of his arms awkwardly around her shoulders. "And just where are you going?" She grunted under his weight.

"Ta Buckin'ham Palace!" Britain proclaimed, throwing his arms out wide, also throwing off Mari's balance.

"Not like that you're not!" Mari exclaimed and she half-threw him onto the couch. "Guys!" she turned to us with an exasperated expression. "Help me out here!

It occurred to me that I probably wasn't being the best friend, not helping poor Mari out, so I forced myself out of my giggle fit and stood up. "Alright," I said. "Safi, Alex, go make Britain a big pot of coffee, but Safi, don't let Alex drink any. Zara, you and I are going to call a cab. Britain, where is your phonebook?"

Eventually we were able to get the location of the phonebook out of Britain. I found it while Zara found a phone and she called for a cab. When we came back into the living room, we were surprised to see Britain lying on the couch being drunk (not surprising) with a red, swollen cheek. Standing across the room from him was Mari, who looked completely horrified and was clutching her hand. "He…he kissed me!" Mari exclaimed, her eyes wide in shock.

"WHAT?!" Zara and I shouted.

"And we missed it?!" Zara yelled. "Guys! Britain kissed Mari!" she ran screaming down the hall.

I grabbed Mari's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "Mari, are you going to be okay?" I asked.

"No!" she exclaimed, getting more and more upset. "He just kissed me! On the lips! And I slapped him!"

"Calm down Mari!" I said as I made her sit on the couch, placing myself between her and the Brit. "He's drunk, remember? It's alright."

At that moment, Zara, Alex and Safi rushed into the room all at once. "He KISSED her?!" they all screamed.

"Yes!" I yelled back. "Now give me the coffee.

"The car's here," Safi said, looking out the window.

"Already?!" Alex exclaimed.

"Okay," I sighed, getting ready for action and ignoring the utter defiance of the laws of the universe that had just occurred outside. "Mari, come on, we gotta go now. The rest of you, help me get this bloody wanker into the car."

Somehow, we managed to do just that. Neither my friends, the driver nor I thought it was a very good idea to bring a drunk to Buckingham after visiting hours, but once Britain clumsily showed the driver something from his wallet, the Driver suddenly helped us all into the car and drove without another word. We let Mari take the front seat since she'd been through a lot in only a few minutes, so the rest of us were crammed in the back with a completely wasted Britain. Eventually we did arrive at Buckingham Palace. Britain paid the driver and told him to "keep the change." In a loud screeching of tires the cab sped away, going 0-60 more quickly than possible anywhere else but in an anime.

Britain stumbled up to the front gate. Standing outside of it were those guards with the gigantic furry hats.

"Ooooooh my gosh!" Alex squealed as she ran up to one. "Can I try on your hat?" she asked.

The guard didn't acknowledge her.

"Hey! Down here! Yoo-hoo!" she called, jumping up and down. "Hey mister! Hey! Hey! Hey mister! Hey!"

"Alex," Safi said, putting her hands on Alex's shoulders. "They're trained not to respond to _anything_!"

Alex stared right into Safi's eyes for the longest time. Finally, she said, "You know you want to."

Safi's eyebrows went up and her mouth opened as if to answer with some retort…but then she smiled. "Leesy?" she turned towards me with the face.

Oh no. Not the face.

"FUDGE!" I screamed as I ran towards them, arms waving in the air like Woody. "Mari come on!" I yield without looking over my shoulder.

Sure enough, soon all four of us were trying our hardest to make the guards crack.

"Oi," Britain said, still drunk but at least he was taking sips of coffee. "Don't they know it's useless?" he asked Zara.

Wait, Zara? Why wasn't she doing this with us? This sort of thing was right up her alley!

My friends and I realized this and we all turned to stare at her.

Zara stood there, watching us with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face, looking incredibly mature, especially for her. "Amateurs," she said, brushing her black and purple hair out of her face. "Let me show you how it's done." she walked up to us. "Well, don't stop! Keep going!"

None of us questioned her. We did as we were told. If there was only one person in the world who could get them to crack, it was Zara.

So we went right back to doing what we'd been doing before. I didn't want to look down to reveal what Zara was doing, but out of the bottom of my eye I could see her bending over. A while later, she stood up and said, "Okay guys. I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do. Just give up already."

This seemed oddly uncharacteristic, which is why we decided to follow her. She led us back to Britain, who was just sitting there on the ground. "Well, if you're all done 'avin' fun now" he said. "I'll get us in for real." He walked up to the guards, who apparently knew him because they all turned and saluted him. Most of them anyway. The very one who we had been trying to get a reaction out of, turned and fell flat on his face. Looking at his feet, we could see that his shoelaces had been tied together.

"OMIGOSH!" we all screamed and fell on our butts laughing. There were tears in my eyes, but something still worried me. "L-Listen," I said, crawling up to the guard, since I was laughing too hard to walk. "We're so sorry. We didn't mean to-" I wiped the tears out of my eyes and got a good look at the soldier. His shoulders were shaking. Was he crying? … No…. he was laughing!

"Th-tha' was right jolly, mate!" He cried with a Scottish accent. Lifting off his hat, I could now see a young man with green eyes, dark blond hair and a goofy smile on his face. "I 'aven't been got that good in a long time!"

Not exactly the reaction you'd have expected from a British royal guard.

"H-Howard?!" Britain yelled as he stumbled over to us. "Is tha' you?!"

'Howard' looked up. "Britain is that you?!" he said with a huge grin. "Good ta see ya mate!"

"You two know each other?" Mari asked as she and the rest of my friends came over.

"Oh yeah!" Britain staggered over. " 'E helped me escape captivity during WWII! I needed a bit of 'elp being Italian in order to cross the border, and 'e just 'appened to be in the neighborhood!"

"WWII?" Safi asked, her eyes wide. "Wasn't that, like, almost seventy years ago?!"

"Sure was!" Howard said happily as he began untying his shoelaces. "For 'elpin' 'im, Britain let me be immortal for as long as I want! It's been great!" He looked up at Britain and smiled a bit bigger. " 'You're lookin' a bit waster, eh mate?" he asked the country.

"Wha are you talking' about?" Britain asked. "I'm completely sober!"

Howard laughed good-naturedly. "Sure ya are mate," he said. "What're you doin' here anyways? A bit late to be at the queen's place, and with these girls, don't ya think?"

From there, we had to explain (cuz Britain was hardly in good condition to be explaining things) who we were and how Britain had insisted on bringing us here.

"Sounds like you ladies have been through quite the day!" he laughed. "Well, let me 'elp you out. My shift's almost over, and I can 'elp you get 'ome."

After a bit of protesting from Britain, Howard was eventually able to convince him to let him help. Soon he had Britain in a cab and on the way home and us on a private double decker bus to take us home. As soon as we'd said goodbye to Howard and the bus began moving, I immediately ran up to the second level, dragging my friends with me. I've always wanted to ride on the top of a double decker bus, and now was my chance! "This is so cool!" I squealed happily.

"Lees! Look at this!" Mari called.

I turned around to see what she was pointing at, and my mouth dropped open. "Oh. My. Gosh."

Across the top of the bus was one, long sky roof, stretching from the left side of the bus to the right. Through it, I could see the night sky.

"Do you think…?" Safi asked.

Alex and Zara looked at each other, smiled and began to climb up the seats of the bus, the rest of us right behind them. We crouched on top of the seats, and together we pushed the sky roof open. A sudden gust of air rushed through the window, cool but refreshing.

I instantly knew what I wanted to do. Standing strait up, I stuck the upper half of my body out of the sky roof and into the cool air. All around me were the lights of London at night. It was beautiful.

My friends joined me out the top, and once we were all up we joined hands and raised them high.

The bus took us all the way home. While the drive didn't take as long as it would have if we'd actually driven from Britain to our house (if that would've been possible), the trip wasn't as quick as it would've been if Britain had been with us, so we got home late. Many things had happened on the bus on the ride home, stuff I'm not allowed to tell you about because we made a pact ;) but let's just say that we were all exhausted by the time we got home. So we dragged our sorry carcasses off the bus, thanked the driver, and staggered into our house. We bid each other goodnight, laughing briefly at the crazy day, and we all went straight to bed.

_**I know I KNOW it's a sucky chapter with an equally sucky ending, but it's been such a long time since I updated that I figured I should just get up what I can. Hopefully you bros can deal until I get into a better grove with these long chapters I've been spitting out lately. Well, anyhow, thanks for reading. I love you guys! Please don't kill me!**_


	12. Frog-Faced Francy-Pants

**Transformersbaby**_**-Lol I know right? But who doesn't love drunk Iggy?!**_

**Flying-Mustache-Bunny**_**-Thank you!**_

**Dethia1101**_**-Thnx! Yeah, I know, between the end of the school year and these uber-long chapters (never should've made 'um so long in the 1**__**st**__** place) it's hard to update, but I've no intention of stopping! Lol yeah I've been waiting for drunk Iggy for a looong time**_

**Face15**_**-YOUR APROVAL MAKES ME PLEASURE–SMILE! :D I'll try, but these "with the countries" chapters are hard work!**_

**Obviously Me**_**-Dude. Chill. I've no intention of stopping, and I'll do my best to get it up soon. Stay super!**_

**Sarpndo**_**-Lol I know right?! Honestly, who hasn't dreamed of doing that? But I couldn't bring myself to do that to a guard who wouldn't be okay with it. Seriously, the Royal British Guard deserves lots o' respect.**_

**TheAmericanNinja**_**-ISN'T HOWARD AMAZING!? Seriously! He's so adorkable! He's one of my favorite human-Hetalia characters & even though he lived during WWII (I'm emphatic he existed) I couldn't bear to not add him! And really, who doesn't love a crazy drunk Brit? Thanks a heap!**_

_**Alright! Dat be all! Stay awesome!... No Prussia intended.**_

**Prussia:** **ALL ZE PRUSSIA INTENED!**

_**PRUSSIA LEAVE IT'S NOT YOUR TIME YET!**_

**Prussia: But zis is ze 12****th**** chapter, you finally have 50 reviews and ze awesome me hasn't made an awesome entrance yet!**

_**SHUT UP YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU BRO & I PROMISE I WON'T FORGET YOU!**_

**Prussia: … Oh fine.**

_**Good boy.**_

**Prussia: I AM NOT ZE DOG!**

_**:D**_

"Ow ow OW!"

"Lees! Get offa him!"

I looked up from the man's back I was kneeling on, digging my knees into his spine, pinning his arms behind his back with one hand and gripping him by the hair with my other. "… What?" I asked in a daze. I could've sworn I had just been asleep in my bed, yet here I was causing probably unbearable pain to this guy who was both taller and most certainly taller than me. … Wait… Yes, there had been a scream. One of my friends had screamed. Almost instantly it seemed, I'd been down from my loft bed, out of my room and down the stairs, then I'd rushed the first non-female figure I'd seen. Yes, that was how I'd gotten here.

I looked down as the man screamed again.

"S'il vous plait!" he howled. "Je me rends! Avoir pitié!"

That and the shoulder-length wavy blond hair made me recognize him.

Oh fudge.

I immediately scrambled off France, releasing his arms and hair and letting him breathe again. "G-Geez France!" I exclaimed, a bit horrified at what I'd just done. "I'm sorry about that! I heard a scream and I just… I just…" Aw heck, I didn't even know!

France pushed himself up into a sitting position, first pressing his hands against his back and arching backwards, then rolling his shoulder, and then rubbing his hair. "Do not worry about, mon ami," he said with a genuine smile, which made me go, _How can he possibly be okay with that?! I just assaulted him!_ "No harm done; I've been through worse."

Still, after I stood up I offered my hand to France and helped him up. That was a bit of a mistake because once he was on his feet he didn't release my hand. Instead, he pulled me into his embrace and held me close to him. "Besides," he said seductively, his face not far from him. "I do not mind ze aggressive type."

In a Ranma-ish fashion, my fist hit France's face at the exact same time my friends' fists came down on his head, making France crumble to the ground.

I stood by my friends, watching those odd round, anime lumps form on France's head. "So who screamed?" I asked as I went to the freezer.

"I did," I heard Mari say. "I just came downstairs to get breakfast started when I found him in the kitchen. He didn't try anything; he just startled me, that's all."

"And the rest of you?" I asked as I shut the freezer door, icepack in hand as I faced my friends.

"I was coming down for my morning chai tea." Safi said.

"I was getting hungry so I was coming down for some food." Said Zara.

"Zara dragged me out of bed because she wanted me to make her waffles." Alex added.

"Then we heard Mari." They said together.

I nodded in acknowledgement, then I walked over to France and put the icepack on the large bump. I really did feel sorry for him. He hadn't known what was coming. "Help me carry him to the couch?" I asked my friends, but then the country stood up by himself.

France held the icepack to his head with one hand and put the other on his hop. He didn't look beat-up anymore, in fact he stood up strait and tall with a dashing smile. How could he recover so fast? He reminded me of someone… Hm… "Well I must say zat I am impressed!" he said. "When you ladies zreatoned me a few days ago, I must say zat I didn't quite believe you. You don't exactly look like ze type 'oo could take down a full-grown man, especially you," he said to me. "'Ow did you do zat exactly?" he asked.

To be honest, I had no idea. True none of us were very strong, but I was for sure the weakest of our group, proportionately at least.

"I don't know," I said. "Adrenaline I guess."

France tipped his head briefly to the side and nodded. "Well anyways, I promise now zat I won't make any more advances on you, Mademoiselles. Although," France winked flirtatiously. "I am a completely unstoppable flirt."

I sighed, "Fair enough." I said tiredly, but then I gave a small smile.

No one said anything for a while, then Zara burst out "FRANCE YOU READ DIDRTY BOOKS!"

"… Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?" the rest of my friends and France all said.

"Don't you guys remember?" Zara asked. "When we were in the meeting building hiding in the closet, we found all those dirty books in there! Well who else's would they be?"

"Zara!" Safi exclaimed exasperatedly. "You don't just go and _ask _people that!"

"But what if it's true?" Alex asked. "Wouldn't that make sense? You're kind of a perv France."

France nodded a bit. "While zat is true," he said. "I do not in fact read dirty books. Why use those when you can have the whole thing?" France smiled seductively.

"TMI!" I shouted.

"True," Mari said. "Although that does make sense."

I thought about it for a moment, then I said, "So it does. Still, if they weren't France's whose were they?"

"I honestly don't care." Mari stopped me. "I'd personally rather not know."

"… Yeah," my friends and I agreed.

Before anything else could be said, France sniffed the air, his eyes widened and he rushed to our oven, throwing on some oven mists and opening it. "Ouf!" he exclaimed in a relieved voice. "My croissants didn't burn!"

A smell that was something close to heavenly wafted from the oven, being visible only because it is an anime. Also due to the anime-ness, me and my friends' faces changed to absurd drooling ones. We hadn't eaten since Britain's breakfast, if you didn't count the failed teatime, and we were _starving_.

France noticed our faces and chuckled. "Once it cools, you may eat." He told us.

We waited the last possible amount of time before eating the croissants. We burned our mouths, but we didn't care.

"Mon dieu," France said as he watched us stuff our faces, despite the fact that our faces were smoking. "Why are you all so 'ungry?"

"Werfhafetnsesyesday!" Zara said with her mouth full.

"She said we haven't eaten since yesterday." Safi explained.

"Porquoi?" France asked.

Mari swallowed her steaming food before answering, "We didn't really get the chance to eat any food yesterday."

"I suppose zat would be for ze best," France said with a smug smile. "It's better zat you not eat Britain's food."

"So France, how'd you get in here anyway? I'm positive I locked the door last night." Alex said before eating another croissant like it was the simplest thing in the world, when in reality, did that count as breaking-and-entering?

"Well getting into any 'ouse is easy if you 'ave ze key!" France said smartly as he pulled out a house key. Wait a second. _My_ house key.

"Hey!" I protested with food in my mouth like a sir. "I was looking for that!"

France laughed and tossed me the key. "I was wondering whose this was." He said.

Not long after that, the doorbell rang. Wait, we have a doorbell? No one had used it since we moved in.

"I'll get it!" Zara exclaimed as she jumped up and ran for the door. We could hear her talking to the person outside for a bit, then she yelled inside, "Hey guys! Do we know a slamz?"

"Slamz?" Safi asked.

"Yeah! S-L-A-M-Z, SLAMZ!"

"… Wait a second. SLAMZ, that's us! Safi, Lees, Alex, Mari and Zara!"

"Oh! Well then, can I get some help guys? I don't want to drop this."

Intrigued, France, my friends and I got up to see what Zara needed help holding. We found her standing in the doorway holding a large bouquet of flowers in a glass vase. It was Zara, so it was probably a good idea to take it. So France took it from her and brought it over to the table.

"Who's it from?" Alex asked.

I pulled down the little tag on the flowers that said, 'To: S, L, A, M & Z' on the front. Opening it, I read aloud, "Dear S, L, A, M &Z, I am terribly sorry for yesterday. I believe that wanker America must have snuck in and spiked my tea. Anyway, I wish that you hadn't seen me in such an unstately manor, especially you Mari. I beg forgiveness for advancing on you in a most ungentlemanly way. I promise that when I see you next I will most certainly not be drunk. With love, Britain."

We all turned to look at Mari. She was blushing profusely, refusing to meet anyone's eyes, but she couldn't hide the smile on her face.

"Ohonhonhon, what exactly 'appened yesterday?" France asked pervily.

My friends and I looked at each other. Finally, I said in a fast voice, "Yesterday is history tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift that's why it's called the present so let's get a move on people!"

Everyone took my cue and we raced upstairs, got ready and meet France back downstairs. He, like Britain, would be walking us to his house. Across the ocean. I still didn't get that.

"Hey wait guys," Alex said as we all trooped down the path. "There's something in the mailbox."

Sure enough, the flag was up. Alex reached inside and pulled out a letter. "Alfred f. Jones," she read aloud. "Do we know an Alfred?"

"Zat would be America's 'uman name," France explained. "What does it say?" he asked, smiling mischievously as he reached for the letter.

Alex whipped the letter out of France's reach. "I believe it's addressed to 'the Dudettes', no France. It's illegal to read other people's mail, at least in America, so hands off."

The rest of us took that as a cue to gather around Alex and read over her shoulders. It was extremely hard to read, but I'm one to talk. It read, 'Heya dudettes! I saw that you put what I gave you to good use! Nice job Alex! You shoulda seen Britain this morning! He was totally under a blanket having a major hangover yo! It was freakin' hilarious! Anywho Britain already blames me, so don't worry about being found out or anything. It's no problem for me, so just forget about it and go have some fun with Francy-pants! But if he tries anything just call the hero and I'll come rescue you! I hope you get this letter cuz I haven't written one for a while now and I have no idea if I did it right. –America'

"Aw, that's so sweet!" Alex said happily.

"In a weird way," Safi said what we were all thinking.

Nevertheless, Alex still folded up the letter and put it in her pocket.

From there, France lead us to his place. Again, we weren't paying much attention. Safi, Alex and Mari were practicing their French with France, while Zara and I tried desperately to use our knowledge of Spanish and our minute knowledge of French to decipher what they were saying. Needless to say it didn't work out too well. So instead Zara and I pretended to speak French by plugging our noses and saying the few French words we knew with outrageous French accents. We earned some laughs from our friends and some confused looks from France, but we were able to convince him that we were just kidding.

Just as before, in hardly any time at all we ended up in Paris.

"Welcome to Paris!" France exclaimed, and in one flamboyant and rather sparkly moment, he whipped five red roses out of thin air. "For you, ma cherries," he said with a sweeping bow as he held out the roses and we each took one.

_Safi must be having a really good day,_ I thought as I watched her hold her rose tenderly. _First a big bouquet of flowers, then roses, geez._

"So whadaya got planned for us Francy-pants?" Zara asked.

"Well," France said with a smile. "I zought first we could go to ze Lourve-"

I gasped. "The Louvre?" I asked. "Did you just say the Louvre?"

France looked at me curiously. "Oui," he said.

I clasped my hands over my mouth, trying desperately not to completely flip out. "You're serious right now? You're not joshing me?"

"… Non…"

"… Omigosh, omigosh we're going to the Louvre! Guys! We're going to one of the largest art museums on the planet! Oh my frikin' gosh!"

"Are you meaning to tell me zat you are also an art fan?" France asked a bit excitedly.

"That's an understatement," Mari said with a grin.

"THANK YOU!" I cried, and I actually hugged the perv. I know, not smart right? But I was too euphoric to care.

Luckily, France stayed true to his word and didn't try anything. Instead he grabbed my hands and we both began jumping up and down in excitement. My friends eventually joined us just for the heck of it. We must've been quite the sight: five American girls and a flamboyant Frenchman celebrating like this out in the open, but I couldn't care less.

"Well what are we waiting for?!" France exclaimed. "Allons-y!" and he ran for the Louvre, the rest of us close behind. When we got there, my first thought was, _Wow. That is big._ I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised but,… Geez, was it huge!

"How are we going to do this?" Mari asked. "There's no way we can see the whole thing in one day."

I tried not to melt out of sadness like Tamaki Sempai.

"I have an idea!" Alex spoke up. "Let's have a contest!"

"What sort of competition are we talking about?" France said, interested.

Alex took her smartphone out of her pocket. "Everyone gets a half hour to run around different sections of the Louvre, taking pictures together in some sort of album. The person to take the most pictures wins."

Everyone thought that sounded like fun, so France got each of us a map. He would take each of us to our designated sections, he'd be checking in on us during the hour, making sure we were okay and stuff.

"Remember," Mari said as we all got our phones ready. "They have to be _good _pictures. No blurry run-byes, that means you Zara."

"Aw man!"

France took us all to our sections. I was the last to reach mine, so I got to see lots of art on the way.

Needless to say, I was pretty happy.

Soon we were all ready to go and France sent the starting text. As soon as I received it, I was off. I passed My section was The Italian Renaissance, which made me even happier because this was one of my favorite periods in history.

I passed St. Sebastian, Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, and St. John the Baptist; Christ Carrying the Cross, The Allegory of the Liberal Arts, and Portrait of Il Condottiero stopping to marvel at them all. Each one was a challenge to pull myself way from, but I wanted to see as much as I possibly could. The Battle of San Romano, The Wedding Feast at Cana, The Pastoral Concert; The Beautiful Nani, The Entombment of Christ, St. Michael Slaying the Devil, all were beautiful, but it wasn't until I found a certain one that I froze.

I saw it on the screen of my phone first, then I lowered it to see the real thing. I couldn't believe it. I was standing in front of the real Mona Lisa. How many times had I seen pictures of this painting, but here was the real deal. I, like many others was mystified by her. There was the smile, although de Vinci often painted people with smirks, hers actually went down on one side and up on the other. Then there was the uneven background, but that could be explained by a simple change in elevation, and then the large hands. I was a minor supporter of the theory that the Mona Lisa could be de Vinci's idea of what he would have looked like as a girl, which could explain the hands, but I still didn't know. It was truly a masterpiece. I idolized Leonardo de Vinci. I thought he was a complete genius, and he was. I mean, he had ideas for parachutes, tanks, helicopters and many more, centuries before they were invented. He had also revolutionized art for the whole world. I could only dream of ever being even remotely like him.

Eventually though, I would have to keep going, so I took a good picture of the Mona Lisa, took one last gaze at her, then I tore myself away.

It wasn't long after that when I saw someone familiar. A long ways down the hall, there was a small girl, about my age, taking pictures of artwork with her phone. The girl had black hair with purple streaks.

"Zara." I growled as I started to run towards her. This was _my_ section! I wasn't going to let her sabotage my minute chances of winning. Screw the fact that there was no prize, Zara was going to get PWND.

My target saw me coming only when I was about ten feet away. She shrieked, unable to hide her huge smile, and took off. Zara may be faster than me, but I was already going full-steam ahead by the time she'd just began running, so I soon caught up to her. Well, more like barreled (BARRELS) into her.

Carried by our momentum, we rolled several feet in a ball before I finally pinned her beneath me. "Zara!" I puffed, nearly out of energy. "This is my section! What're you doing here?!"

Zara giggled crazily, puffing not nearly as much as I was. "I'm going to win Leesy." She said evilly, and before I could stop her Zara poked her fingers into my sides.

I yelped and my legs automatically launched me off of and away from Zara, allowing her to jump up and escape. "ZARAAAAAAA!" I screamed at her, but Zara just sped accelerated crazy-fast and out of sight, laughing like the madwoman she is. Sighing, I picked myself up off the floor, mentally cursing how out-of-shape I was, and continued taking pictures, not allowing myself as much time to look at the art as I had before.

When I got the 'time's up' text, I put my phone away and took out my map. Luckily I'm no Ryoga; I have a sense of direction and can use a map, so I soon made it to our meeting place. All my friends and France were there already, but it didn't seem like they'd been there for long. Zara and I exchanged competitive glances and I greeted the others.

"Alright, mon amis," France said. "Who 'as ze most pictures?"

_Dangit!_ I thought to myself as we gave our results. I had the least out of everyone! To make matters worse, Zara was in the lead!

"How about you Safi?" Alex asked. "How many do you have?"

"About 100."

"100?!" We exclaimed, and I'm pretty sure my eyes bugged out of my head. "How'd you get 100 in half an hour?!"

Safi shrugged nonchalantly.

I looked down at my meager 30-ish. Geez! What, had I spent an entire minute at each one?!

"May I see?" Mari asked and Safi gave Mari her phone. Mari's eyes widened. "They're all really good too," she said. "These aren't run-byes."

"Well yeah," Safi said. "I stopped to look at each one."

We all stared at her for the longest time.

"She really is the Ghost Queen!" Zara burst out laughing.

"Logic don't apply to Safi!" I grinned happily as I put my arm around her shoulders. "Which isn't the first time I've said that." I said to France. "It was true even in our world! She once made a paperclip stand strait up on its own!"

"I remember that!" Alex said with a grin. "That was so cool."

France meanwhile was a bit creeped out. "Zat is creepy…" he said nervously. "It sounds a bit like zat evil Russia!"

"… You think I'm evil?" Safi asked, tears welling up in her eyes.

"France! Stop making her cry!" I yelled at him angrily. Mari immediately took Safi into her arms, stroking her hair and saying, "It's okay, it's okay." Zara was also hugging Safi, trying to cheer her up and saying she's not evil. I joined them in the hug-fest, leaving Alex to give France a good hard kick in the shin before joining us.

France was clutching his shin in pain, but he looked genuinely sorry. "J'regrete, mon ami," he said as he pulled an entire bouquet of flowers out of thin air and gave it to Safi. "I didn't mean it. Please forgive me."

Safi poked her head out of the mass of arms. Freeing one of her arms, she dashed the tears out of her eyes and took the flowers. When she inhaled their sent and smiled, we knew that all was forgiven.

France saw this and smiled too. " 'Ow about a complementary tour?" he offered.

Everyone looked at Safi, who nodded, then we were off.

We spent a good amount of time there in the Louvre, France giving his own personal commentary, which was exceedingly interesting since he was actually _there_ for a lot of what he talked about. I have so much to say about it, but I know that if I do I'll probably end up blabbering about history and art and I doubt you guys find that stuff as interesting as I do so I'll just skip ahead to when we left the Louvre.

When we left the art museum of awesomeness, we basically walked around Paris the rest of the day, making much better time than we would've hadn't we been with a country since he could basically transport us across the city. We went to Notre Dame and we sang 'God Save the Outcast' in the light of that huge, round, absolutely beautiful stained glass window, (which I spent a few minutes just staring at), 'Out There', when we visited the bell tower, and 'The Bells of Notre Dame' hare, there and everywhere. In fact, I'm pretty sure we went through the entire soundtrack of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and I'll even admit I was looking around for Quasimodo, or at least his ghost.

We also went to the Arc de Triumph, which Zara tried to scale and the French police came after us, so that was an adventure. Thankfully, Monsieur Bonnefoy (France's human name) apparently has a lot of influence in this town.

Then we went on a tour of France via the River Seine, in which Alex and Zara almost fell overboard several times. That, combined with some other stuff, was why we were asked to never tour with that organization ever again. Thankfully France didn't seem too mad about it.

"It's about dinnertime," France said thoughtfully. " 'Ow would you mademoiselles like to sample some delicacies and eat some dinner?"

We were all getting hungry again, so we agreed. France took us to a stereotypical but cute quaint little French restaurant on a street corner. "Now you shall taste ze pinnacle of cuisine!" France said, becoming very flamboyant and sparkly again, immediately making me think _Tamaki Sempai. He was half French right?_ I looked at France. _Yup. Definitely French._

"Bonjour, mademoiselle," he addressed the waitress that came up to us. Then he went off ordering in French, so I didn't get a word of it beyond "Si vu play.' "Isn't French a beautiful language?" he asked us as the waitress walked away. "Much better zan English if you ask me. I never bother to remember zat ugly language."

Wait.

"Um, excuse me, France?" Mari finally spoke up and asked France. "Haven't you been speaking in English to us?"

France opened his eyes to look at Mar. "What are you talking about?" he asked. "I'm not speaking English, and neither are you."

"… Wait, what?" I asked, then I immediately gasped. I _wasn't_ speaking English! I didn't know what we were speaking; it didn't sound Romantic, Germanic, Russian, Middle Easter, Pacific Islander, Asian, or like anything I've ever heard, yet we all knew it fluently.

"What language is this?" Safi asked, paying attention to the words that came out of her own mouth.

"It is ze language of ze countries," France explained. "All countries speak it, and you girls came speaking it, which is part of why we couldn't let you go." France looked at us curiously. "You didn't even know you were speaking it?" he asked. "We figured wherever you came from, it was a common language."

We all shook our heads. "But that doesn't make sense," Alex protested. "We've spoken to normal people since we came here, and they've understood us fine."

" 'Aven't you noticed?" France asked. "Zey've all been English-speakers. You must 'ave been unconsciously slipping back and forth between the two."

"What about the other countries?" Zara asked. "I remember some of them talking to English speakers."

France smiled a bit. "Most countries know at least a minute amount of English," he said. "I am ze stubborn exception."

_I know how that is,_ I thought to myself, then I leaned back in my chair to really think about it. I did remember learning somewhere that many Europeans know a good amount of English, since apparently it's an important language. Also, now that I thought about it, when we'd bought the house, America and Britain had done most of the talking, and when we'd gone out to eat I remembered those tow explaining to other countries what those dishes were, and many of the countries had just pointed to what they wanted on the menu. Weird I hadn't noticed that before.

"… Is he right?" I asked, making a conscious attempt to speak English, and it worked.

"Yeah, I think so," Safi said in English also. We turned to look at France and we could tell by his face that he didn't understand us.

"I can't believe we didn't notice this before," Mari used out native language.

"Cool!" Zara exclaimed. "Cool, cool! Cool, cool!" she said, going back and forth between English and the countries' language.

"How long have we been doing this?" Alex wondered in English.

"Excusez-moi," France said. "Could you _please_ se countries' language so I can understand what you're saying?"

"Sorry," Mari switched back as requested. "We were just wondering how we suddenly knew this language. It doesn't even exist in our world."

France looked confused. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah," Alex confirmed. "Countries don't have personifications in our world."

"Unless they're a secret," Safi said, her eyes widening in wonder.

"Whoa!" Zara exclaimed. "What if there really _are_ people-countries in our world and we just didn't know about them? Talk about a mind-blower!"

"Non," France interrupted. "You would know if zere were 'people-countries' in your world. It's common knowledge."

I thought about that for a moment before saying, "Wait, then why do you guys keep saying that the countries are a secret?"

"Ze fact zat we _are_ ze personifications is ze secret," France explained. "Not ze fact zat we exist. As countries, we try to keep our identities secret, which is why we have 'uman names. And anyway, it's not a very well-kept secret. Many soldiers in ze armies we command personally come to know us for who we are."

"… Ohhhhhhhh," My friends and I said all at once, finally getting it. Just in time too; our food was coming.

I typically like foreign foods, so I was excited to try some French fod, but as the food was coming cloer, I saw something that made me remember a certain joke. Here it is: What would you say if a snail sped past you in a car with a great big S on the side? 'Look at that S-car go!' Say it out loud. Go on, say it! S-car go. Escargot. Get it? Sure wasn't funny at the time.

_Maybe they won't look like snails," _I thought to myself hopefully, and I was partially right. They weren't slimy, but they were green-ish and still in the shells, so there went that idea. _Come on Lees, you're not a picky eater anymore, remember? It'll probably taste fine. It's supposed to be salty, right? You like salty stuff. Yeah, but not when it's green Well you at least have to say you've tried it before you go diss it._ Luckily for me though, more food was coming, so maybe trying escargot could be prevented, or at least postponed. _Procrastination let's go._ However, my hopes were soon dashed when I saw what the other food was.

"Um," Safi asked, awkwardly eyeing the food. "What is this?" she pointed to a jelly-lie substance.

"Zat," France said, confirming my fears. "Is caviar. Zis is frog legs, and zis is sweet bread."

My friends and I stared at the unearthly display of 'edibles' in front of us.

"… Let's do it!" Alex said with a huge grin and immediately started filling her plate with the stuff.

"Well I've already tried frogs and snails," Zara said, wrinkling her nose a bit at the memory. "so I guess I'll go for the sweet bread and caviar!"

"Pass the escargot please," Mari said, taking some sweet bread while she waited. "I've never tried sweet bread before."

Safi was taking a little bit of everything, and I knew she'd try it and at least pretend to like it for France's sake. She looked up, saw my face and gave a small smile. "You should try some Lees' she said only loud enough for me to hear. "You might end up liking it."

I sighed softly and nodded. I knew she was right, but it was just so hard! Finally I forced myself to copy Safi and take a little bit of everything, making sure to take only a minute amount of escargot since that was the one I was dreading the most. _Okay, _I thought. _Try something._ "Heh, frog legs," I said aloud, making an attempt at humor to hide my nervousness. "Taste like chicken, right?"

"Nope, Zara said enthusiastically. "Tastes nothing like chicken."

_Thanks, _I thought sarcastically as I looked back down at my plate. _I love froggies, _I thought pitifully, remembering all those times at camp when I'd go out frog catching, or even saving them from the cabins of terrified girls or cruel boys. An Kermit. Aw man, I couldn't eat Kermit! _Pull yourself together Lees! You'll get through it the same way you get through eating chicken!_ With that in mind, I ate a leg. Nope. Didn't taste like chicken.

"Mm, this sweetbread's pretty good!" Mari said. "I can't really taste the bread though."

This made me look up at my friend withy wide eyes. "Uh, Mari," I said. "Do you know that sweetbread is made of?"

Mari's eyes met mine, concern crossing her face. "… No…" she said, looking down at the sweetbread and then back to me.

I looked around. "Do _any _of you know?" I asked.

Alex looked up from her food and shook her head, but it didn't seem like it was a big deal to her. Safi looked down at the sweetbread and then to me with a 'what's wrong with it?' face. Zara couldn't stop looking back and forth between the sweetbread and me with a confused look on her face. France looked around the table at everyone. "You really don't know?" he asked. "Why, it's just-"

"DON'T!" I yelled quickly to stop him. I got quite a few stares but I didn't really care. "Just," I said, forcing myself to calm down. "Let them eat in the bliss of ignorance. If they really want to know, we can tell them later."

France took a second to think about this, then he shrugged indifferently and continued eating.

My friends however weren't exactly as eager to eat as they'd been before. Quite a few of them had the 'I don't know if I want to eat this anymore' looks on their faces.

I felt a bit bad for ruining it for them, but I guess they have the right to know that it wasn't bread. With that in mind, I turned to my own sweetbread and… I couldn't do it. Knowing what it really was what it was from, and the age of what it was from, I just couldn't eat it. So I moved on to the next thing on my plate: caviar. Once, I remembered, my grandma brought caviar to Thanksgiving 'dinner (more of a lunchtime event with my family) for everyone to try, but she was the only one who would eat it. She didn't like it. Yeah, she's one odd duck. But anywho, now I had the chance to try some fish eggs for myself. Great.

Alex saw how I was looking at the caviar and gave a mischievous grin, which is never good. "What if you ate those," she said only soft enough for me to hear. "And they hatched in your body, and little baby Nemos started swimming around in your-" she was interrupted by a spoonful of 'baby Nemos' to the face.

"Mon deu!" France exclaimed. "What did Mademoiselle Alex do to deserve zat?"

"Sorry," I said, moving around the food on my plate a bit. "She was grossing me out. She had it commin'."

France made a funny face, then he looked down at my plate. _Oh no._ "Mademoiselle Lees," he said. _Here it comes._ Are you not going to try your escargot?"

_Fudge._

"Hm, oh yeah!" I said with a forced smile and laugh. "I was just getting to that." Trying to suppress my shaking, I took a bit of snail… _No, don't say that. Call it escargot, or maybe just 'the food'. Yeah,…_ the food and forced my hand to move towards my mouth, but it never got it there. "I couldn't stop staring at it. All I could think about was that scene from The Lion King 1 ½ where Timone was about to slurp down one more _live_ snail when it turned into Pumba and said, 'I told you this wasn't such a good idea!' In that moment, I made a decision. I couldn't do this. I opened my mouth to say so when out of the corner of my eye I saw something come flying at me. The next thing I knew it hit me strait in the face, some of it landing in my tongue. My body's natural instinct was to swallow. Immediately I fought the gag reflex. It. Was. Disgusting. Escargot didn't look slimy, but it sure tasted and felt that way. "… Okay." I said, wiping the snail off my eyes and opening them. "Who threw that?"

Everyone at the table pointed at Alex, except Alex, who looked up towards the sky. "Hm, well whadaya know." She said nonchalantly. "Some escargot just fell from the sky. Despite the astronomical odds, it hit you directly on the face. Imagine that."

"Yes," I said, pushing my chair back. "Imagine that."

What happened after that I'd rather not say, but I will say that I was asked never to return to that restaurant again, even though Alex started it. I did eventually explain what sweetbread is and Safi tried to kill France. It was really funny, but I'm afraid some of the things she said may be offending to the French, PETA, and anyone who likes sweetbread, so I decided to not write it down because I don't want my Safi going off to the funny farm without us.

After that, it was getting late. The sun had gone down and the city had lit up.

France looked around his city, a soft, non-pervy smile on his face. "It's time," he said quietly.

"What?" Mari heard him and asked.

The Frenchman turned to us, the same soft smile on his face and genuine excitement in his eyes. "Alonzee!" he exclaimed, gesturing to us as he took off down the street.

Not wanting to be left alone in Paris and curious to see what was up with France, my friends and I ran after him. France was excited to go there so he ran pretty quickly, but he looked back frequently to make sure that we were following. Down the streets of Paris we ran, too occupied with keeping up with our guide to notice what we were heading towards, so we didn't realize it until we got there.

We finally caught up with France to see him standing with his back to us, looking upwards.

"Okay France," Alex said, puffing a bit from our run. "What did you want us to… Oh."

She , like the rest of us, saw what France was looking at and stared in amazement.

"Welcome, mon amis, to ze Eiffel Tower."

And there it was, in all its huge, majestic glory. Its huge, curving beams bent upwards until it almost seemed to touch the sky, then there was the blinking top, seemingly miles above us.

I was extremely impressed by the sheer size and the beauty of the thing. I couldn't imagine how French artists could have ever thought of it as ugly, or how the heck the government thought anything this big could've been temporary… Sorry, I'm getting into art, history and engineering mode again.

"Well what are we waiting for?!" Zara exclaimed. "Let's do this thing! To the top we go!" Then she and France lead the way to the elevator.

I looked around at the rest of my friends. I knew Alex had a minute fear of heights, but that would probably be overtaken by her excitement. Safi and Mari's fears weren't so small, but I didn't know if they'd be petrified or awed by it. I didn't bother to think about myself.

Once we all reached the elevator, France ushered us inside and told us to close our eyes.

"Why?" Safi asked, looking a bit concerned.

France smiled at her. "You'll see," he said. "Trust me."

My friends and I looked at each other, then we huddled together for stability and closed our eyes.

I felt the elevator lurch upwards and I left my stomach on the ground as we went up and up. I tried to steady myself and one of my friends grabbed my hand. This helped, but I was embarrassed because my hand was getting clammy already.

Up, up, up we went for what seemed like forever, until the elevator finally jolted to a stop. I heard the doors open and a slight but warm night breeze rushed over us. France lead us out of the elevator, instructing us to keep our eyes closed and no peeking, then he seemed to be arranging us.

My heart was beating so loud I was sure my friends could hear it. BA-THUMP! BA-THUMP! BA-THUMP! I didn't know what was going to happen, and I didn't like being so high up with my eyes closed, but somehow I managed to keep them shut.

"Alright, ma cherries," I heard France say. "You can open your eyes now."

I opened my eyes and was struck speechless. There, stretched out before us, was the entire city of Paris, lit up in all her glory.

"Wow," I breathed, my fear of the great height gone as I went up to the railing, gazing out at the beautiful city.

"It's amazing," I heard Safi say.

"Holy flip," Mari said.

"Frikin' beautiful." Said Zara.

"So worth it," Alex sighed.

"Kinda reminds you of home doesn't it?" I asked my friends without looking away from the amazing view.

"Minneapolis?" Zara asked.

I shook my head. "No," I said. "_Home _home."

"… Ohhhh."

"I have to say France," I said, standing up strait. "I've seen a lot of great works of art today, the Mona Lisa, the Arc de Triumph, the huge window in Notre Dame, and the Eiffel tower itself, and all were beautiful, but this," I stretched my arms out wide to gesture to all of Paris. "This is the best. Nothing can compare to this."

"Isn't it amazing?" I heard France say, and he came to join us at the edge. "Beautiful. I only wish…"

When France stopped, my friends and I turned away from the city to look at him. His eyes were glittering, and he swallowed like it hurt.

"… France?" Mari said after a pause. "Are you…crying? What's wrong?"

France sniffed a bit and dashed the tears from his eyes. "Nozing," he said. "Ze sight of my beautiful city just brings me to tears, zat's all." The he gave a soft smile and said no more.

No one wanted to pry, so we all turned back to the fantastically lit city and said no more.

"Alouette, gentille Alouette. Alouette je te plumerai,"Mari sang, her trademark smile wide. Alex was dancing crazily and clapping along to the beat and singing when she knew the words. Safi and Zara had linked arms and were swinging each other around to the beat, laughing all the way. I, meanwhile, was singing what Mari had told me was the translation of the song: "Pluck the chicken! We're gonna pluck the chicken! Pluck the chicken! Let's pluck the chicken now!" It was getting late, and I must admit to two things: We were trying to cheer France up and we were a bit must've been working, because France couldn't stop laughing at us. He was walking us home again, and our excuse was that we had to keep ourselves occupied. In reality, we were just happy to see France not crying anymore.

When we reached the house, we unlocked the door and invited France inside.

He shook his head. "Non," he said. "I should be getting back now. It's later in Paris than it is here-" He couldn't stop his yawn. "-And I'm afraid I'm a bit…travel-lagged?"

Mari laughed. "Well we won't keep you then," she said. "Adieu, Francy-pants!"

France laughed as he started heading back down the walk. "And yo you too," he said with a sweeping bow. Then he looked like he forgot something. "Mademoiselle Lees!" he called.

"Oui?" I answered.

"Keep zat 'ousekey safe! You wouldn't want a pervert to get ahold of it!" he winked.

I laughed. "Will do!"

We all waved goodbye until France was well out of sight, then we shut the door and locked it.

"You know," Alex said, flopping down on the couch. "France isn't a bad guy."

Safi put her bouquet of flowers in a vase. "He's not half bad." She said. "Just misunderstood."

"Mm," I said with a soft smile not unlike France's. "Aren't we all?"

_**Hey guys so guess what?! I updated w/ France's chapter on the day his episode with Joan of Arc came out! Cool right? So I just wanted to take this moment to talk about how epic Joan was and how much I admire her.**_

_**Joan is one of my few idols. She risked literally EVERYTHING for her God and country, and people are always giving her crap cuz they think she was delusional, but even if that's true she still paid the ulitimate sacrifice for what she believed in, and I find that extremely admirable.**_

_**And anyway, I prefer to believe she was sane.**_


	13. Light Russia's Heart

_**I am fuSOSOSOSO sorry I haven't updated! I hope you don't mind excuses cuz here comes a buttload of them! Yes school for me ended on the 31**__**st**__** of May & that must have given me pleanty of time to write, but with all that open time it feels fuSOSOSOSO good to relax!, and I'll admit that I took that relaxation to a very unproductive extreme. 2, I've been suffering from on and off bouts of writer's block with not awhile lot of inspiration in between. See, while Lees is based off me, her opinion of Russia in this chapter and my opinion of Russia now are not the same, so I can't just make her doo all the things I would do if I met Russia because it wouldn't mae sense. I'll explain more about that later. And C, one of my best friends, the person who Alex is based on, has just recently moved across the country, and it's been a bit of a…distraction for us.**_

_**Back to 2, I thought you'd guys would like to know that Lee's attitude towards Russia during this chapter is based off of how my attitude change towards him; basically this was me at first: 'Omigosh Russia is so frikin scary I'd hate to meet him in a dark alley!', and this is me now: 'KYAAAA RUSSIA YOU'RE SO FRIKIN' ADORABLE AND AWESOME IF I BECOME ONE WITH MOTHER RUSSIA DOES THAT MEAN I CAN BE YOUR LITTLE SISTER!?' *ahem* So…yeah…but Lees won't get to THAT point. That'd be creepy for any non-fangirl.**_

**Luvrainluv**_**:**__**WAAAAH DON'T GIVE ME THAT LOOK! DX I'm really sorry it took so long but finally here it is!**_

**Dethia1101**_**: No speaky French! ;D & ze answer is…**_

**Sarpndo**_**: ISN'T SHE?! And yes in this case Lee's reaction would be mine XP**_

**IGotDaFeels**_**: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED BAYBAY!**_

**Face15**_**: Let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time the friend of mine whom Safi is based off of (GhostlyQueen9, READ HER STUFF ITS GOOD!) accidently read your review. Let me just say that I had to hold her back from answering this review hersef but it might nothave been okay to post… Lol but seriously DON'T feel bad cuz her reaction was extremely funny XD But to answer your question about Safi, let me just say this: Just because you are affectionate towards someone doesn't mean that you're in love with them. This chapter proves this more than any.**_

**Flying-Mustache-Bunny**_**: YOU HAVE AN EPIC NAME! & thnx!**_

**Transformersbaby**_**: Watch it or Prussia will be after you ;)**_

_**To answer Oviously Me and everyone else who requested Belarus, it makes me VERY sad to say that neither she nor her sister will be appearing in this chapter. However, I hope the fact that I plan to give Russia's sisters their own chapter somewhat makes up for the disappointment and your suggestions are most definitely under consideration!**_

"So are we seeing anyone today?"

"I don't know, France didn't say anything about it."

"Has anyone checked the mail?"

"Yes, and the landline, and the cellphones, and the email and any other sort of message we can get!"

"Perm-do-ba-da-bo-bo pern-kik-a-da French Toast e-de French Toast!"

"Lees, if you keep flipping it that high it's gonna get stuck on the ceiling… DO IT!"

"Aw relax, that stuff only happens in cartoons. FLURITUBOO-Oh. Um, does anime count?"

That sent us all into an insatiable fit of laughter. Nothing's funnier than seeing French toast stuck to a 10 feet high ceiling, am I right?

"Uh, guys," Safi said, trying to hold back her laughter. "It's not coming down."

"Of course it's not!" I laughed exasperatedly. "Okay you," I said, nudging Zara. "Un-stick it."

"Why do I gotta be the un-sticker make her the un-sticker!" Zara pointed to Alex.

"'Cuz I'm just that epic!" Alex snickered and grinned.

" 'Cuz' isn't proper English-Ow!" Mari was interrupted by a punch to the arm.

"Because returning the runt was your idea. Because you're small and insignificant. And because I'll _pummel_ you if you don't." I said, bending further over Zara more threateningly with each point.

"Ehhh… Why else?" Zara asked, complying by bending backwards with each point.

"_NOW!_ ZARA!"

Zara ducked out from under me and ran away laughing.

I turned to the rest of our friends and their stupefied faces. "Ice Age guys," I said as if it should be obvious. "Ya'll gotta know the classics."

"Says the girl who won't watch Harry Potter."

"NOT UNTIL YOU WATCH THE NEW ALICE IN WONDERLAND MARI!"

"Hey guys!" Zara interrupted us. "I'm the shortest! How the heck am I supposed to get it down?"

"Get the broom. Do it now."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuugh," Zara groaned loudly, putting her head back as she comically dragged herself off to find the broom.

By the time we'd gotten the toast off the ceiling, off Zara's face and into the trash, (no one was going to eat it now), Alex had taken over the job of cooking and had some more French toast ready. "Safi!" She yelled over my shoulder. "Ready?"

Safi quickly ran over to the plate on which the French Toast was stacked, grabbed it before shouting "PULL!"

Alex flipped the French toast backwards over her head, not high enough to hit the ceiling I might add, and whirled around to watch Mari lift Safi just in time to catch the highflying toast. "Catch is complete!" Alex declared, holding the frying pan high.

My friends and I laughed as we all moved to the table and quickly ate all the French toast. Wait a second. French toast. Why hadn't I thought of that before?! I immediately grabbed a fork and spoon that I had been putting away and began tapping the table rhythmically. Before anyone could ask what I was doing, I began to say, "_All around the country coast to coast/People always say what do you like most/I don't wanna brag I don't wanna boast/I always tell 'em I like toast._" Then I screamed, "_YEAH TOAST!_" earing laughter from my friends._ "YEAH TOAST!_" I took their laughter as the go-ahead."I_ get up in the mornin' bout six AM_"

"Liar!" Zara laughed as I beat my silver wear through the pause.

"H_ave a little jelly have a little jam/Take a piece of bread put it in the slot/Push down the lever and the wires gets hot/I get toast./YEAH TOAST! YEAH TOAST!/Now there's no secret to toasting perfection/There's a dial on the side and you make your selection/Push to the dark or the light and then/If it pops too soon press down again/Make toast./YEAH TOAST! NEAH TOAST!_" I whined, earning more laughter from both my friends and myself. _"When the first caveman drove in from the drags/Didn't know what would go with the bacon and the eggs/Must have been a genius got it in his head/Plug the toaster in the wall, buy a bag of bread/Make toast. _"_YEAH TOAST! NEAH TOAST!_" _Here comes the best part!_, I thought to myself, then I plugged my nose and said in an outrageous French accent, "_Oui monsieur bonjour coquette_" only allowing myself to laugh during the spaces when I was just banging to the beat. "_Uh huh croissante vous a ver/Maurice chevalier effeil tower/Oh oui maria bagette bon soir. __**FRENCH TOAST!**_" I screamed, trying not to double over in laughter.__"_**FRENCH TOAST!**_" I gasped for breath."_In Chicago around the Bob and Tom show/__**YEAAAAAAAH TOAST!**_" I tried to say something but it came out as a laughing whine/whimper. When I finally got it together, I was able to say "Toast" before I completely lost it.

Mari had to end up putting my dishes away because I could no longer hold myself upright. Alex and Zara were laughing pretty hard at my antics, but I doubt they knew what I was singing was actually a YouTube song. Safi took on the job of getting me to my feet.

"Come on Leesy," she said as she half-dragged me to my feet. "Stop singing about toast."

I took a deep breath to shout 'FRENCH TOAST' but I saw Safi's face and decided against it, breaking into a fit of giggles instead.

"Well what do we do now" Mari asked once the dishes had been put away and my friends had gotten me to stand by myself."

"You should be coming weed me, da." Said a voice from behind as a large, gloved hand gripped my shoulder.

I must have jumped an entire foot in the air. Whirling around, I found that the culprit was none other than the extremely scary Russia himself. "Russia!" I exclaimed, placing a hand over my heart in an effort to slow its beating. "Don't DO that!"

Russia just smiled at me with that same creepy smile, behind which I had no idea what he was thinking. "You are very jumpy." He stated.

"H-How did you get in here?!" Mari sputtered before I could retort something about sneaking up on jumpy people in their own house. "I'm _emphatic_ I locked the doors last night!"

"I came een through de weendow." Russia said as if that was the most natural thing in the world.

"Well that's…normal," Alex said, not at all put off by Russia's frightening demeanor.

"Is today your day Russia?" Zara asked excitedly, also ignoring the fact that this scary dude had just APPEARED.

"Da," Russia answered, his ever-present smile growing wider. "And I have a present for you girls." He said, and from behind his back he pulled out five large sunflowers.

"Oh wow," Safi gasped as she took one. Geez, she'd been getting lots of flowers lately. "Thank you"

"I love de sunflowers," Russia said. "I saw some on de way here, so I thought I should peeck some for you. Oh! Dees reminds me," Russia turned to…me? "Why is one with blue hair yelling about toast that is French?"

… _Oh gosh._ I facepalmed for my own weirdness and made an effort to keep my laughter back as I realized what he was talking about. "U-um, well you see, I was making French toast and… Yeah…" I said unintelligently.

"That doesn't explain much Lees," Alex laughed as she nudged me in the ribs.

Before any more awkwardness could ensue, I was saved by something very unexpected: Safi suddenly rushed forward and actually _hugged_ Russia! Thankfully though, Russia didn't seem to mind. While I was fully prepared to jump in and save Safi from the scary country when he flipped out, all Russia did was hug her back.

"What is dees for?" he asked.

"I'm not evil and you're not evil," she said softly. "Despite what other people say."

"Of course you and I are not de eveels!" Russia said. "Who would say dat?"

_Well about you…_ I kept my thoughts to myself, remembering what France had said yesterday. Russia was crazy scary, but if he was really evil, _I certainly_ didn't want him hugging my friends.

"It's not important." Safi replied, narrowly avoiding an awkward moment.

Russia smiled a bit wider, releasing Safi and therefore letting me breathe again. "We should be getting going," he said. "Are you girls ready to go?"

"Yeah we're ready!" Alex said excitedly. "Let's go!"

As much as Russia the person scared me, I happen to be a fan of many things Russian, and I was back then too, so I couldn't really help it when I declared, "To the Motherland!"

"Are you Russian?" Russian asked in interest as our group left the house.

"Nyet," I admitted, trying out the small bit of Russian I knew. "but I wish I was."

My minute grasp of his language seemed to please Russia. "You are weeshing correctly." He stated before moving ahead to lead my friends and I.

I accidently stopped in my tracks in surprise. _What did he mean by that?_ I wondered as I started walking again, following my friends and this Russian I didn't trust into the unknown.

I have one word to describe Russia's house: BIG. Some to think of it, a lot about Russia is big. Russia the person is big, and Russia the country covers seven frikin' timezones so 'nuff said.

Anywho, when we got inside, I was surprised to see three guys already there, standing in a straight line. One of them looked to be about fifteen with short, curly blond hair and violet eyes, and he wore a tan sweater over a white dress shirt and brown tie, and wore gray pants, but his most distinguishing feature was his eight. Boy was this guy short! Even Zara towered over him by half a foot at least! By American standards, he would have been a little person if he didn't grow any more.

Another looked about seventeen, a simple looking guy with square glasses and a narrow face with dark blond hair and green eyes, and brown sweater over a white dress shirt and khaki tie with gray pants. I didn't get why, but when he saw my friends and me, his eyes grew really wide.

The third-

"Hey! I know you!" Alex exclaimed. "Hi Lithuania! How's it goin'?"

Lithuania looked surprised for a moment. "O-oh," he stuttered. "F-fine, thank you."

Before we could ask who the other two were, Russia came through the door and the threesome immediately stiffened and began shaking in their boots. "Hello sir," they said in unison. "Welcome home Mr. Russia."

"… Are you okay?" Safi asked concernedly.

"Dey are always like dees," Russia answered for them. Turning to the guys in question, he asked them, "Haven't you boys eentroduced yourselves yet?"

The three jumped a bit and quivered violently. "We're sorry sir!" the exclaimed. Then they turned to my friends and me.

"I'm Lithuania." Said Lithuania.

"I'm Estonia." Said the blond.

"I'm Latvia." Said the shorty.

"I'm Lithuania."

"I'm Estonia."

"I'm Latvia."

"Together we're the Nervous Trembling Trio." The chorused.

_Uh… Okay, I can see that,_ I thought to myself, more than a little weirded-out by their performance. _What a strange name…_ Then I realized something. "Wait a second," I said. "You're the Baltic Trio!"

"Yes," Estonia said. "That's right."

"Well," I said a bit awkwardly. "You three gained independence from the Soviet Union, so… What are you still doing at Russia's house?"

The three of them stared at me with suppressed horror. _I suppose that could be a sensitive topic… Oops._

"I have just hired dem for de day," Russia answered again, and if he had been put off by what I'd said he sure wasn't showing it. "To help me for de leettle girls coming."

_Little?_ I wondered, glancing at Safi. She wouldn't like that. Then I looked up at Russia. _Height wise, yeah, but he can't be much older than us._

"Well it's very nice to meet you." Mari said nicely, trying to calm the poor guys down.

"And us you." They said together.

Latvia stepped forward. "Lithuania told us a little about you," he said, still shaking a bit. "He told us that you played a trick on him and that you were crazy scary girls and-"

"SHUT UP!" Lithuania and Estonia screamed in horror. Estonia slapped his hand over Latvia's moth and looked up at us with a terrified expressin on his face. "W-we are so sorry!" he apologized. "He r-really needs t-to shut his mouth."

"'Naw, s'all G bro!" Zara reassured them with a laugh, although I doubt they could understand her slang and Mari was probably having a mental breakdown right now. "'Crazy scary's actually pretty accurate."

The Trio didn't exactly look reassured, but Russia either didn't notice or didn't care. "We are just stopping een to be meeting de Baltics," Russia said to my friends and me. "Dey weell be meeting us later at Moscow."

If I had anthro-ears, they would have perked up right now. "Moscow?" I asked, a bit excited now. "We're going to Moscow?"

"Da," Russia said to me with a smile. "Do you like Moscow?"

Inside my head, I was screaming, _DIE HARD! IT'S A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD!_ But on the outside all I said was, "… Yeah."

So after that we headed back out, on our way to Moscow according to Russia. I kept replaying a certain scene in my head. When we had been leaving Russia's house, Estonia had held the door open for us, which wasn't unusual of course. However, I walked out last, being behind the rest of the group, and while I was walking out the door, Estonia caught my shoulder. His hand kept me from turning to face him, and he whispered in my ear, "Be careful out there. Whatever you do, don't agree to become one with him. Russia's a really scary guy!" before releasing me.

_That I could figure out myself._ I thought in response to the last statement. Still, his warning did the opposite of putting my fears to rest. Also, what on earth did 'Becoming one' with Russia mean? Would it mean that we would be under his control like the Baltics had been? As much as I liked Russia's things, I had no intention of us becoming one of those things, so I made an effort to always walk between Russia and my friends. Yet, we _were_ in Russia, and there was no way I was not going to milk being here.

"Welcome to Moscow!" I said in my Russian accent, remembering Russia's previous advice on it, putting that to good use. This seemed to please Russia as he smiled at me, but I was a bit too ill at ease to smile back. This didn't go unnoticed by the large country and he frowned a bit. This worried me but not in a way that would make me force a smile in return.

I however seemed to be the only one who felt this way; the rest of my friends seemed quite relaxed around this scary giant. Zara was even going so far as to ask Russia random questions at a million miles an hour. "Why are you so tall? Why are you wearing all that winter stuff in the summer? Can I wear your coat? Can I wear your scarf? Can I hug you?"

"Zara," Safi laughed. Yes, even she was at ease around this stranger. "You can't just go around asking people if you can wear their clothes!"

"But she can have a hug." Russia said with a smile.

"Yay!" Zara exclaimed as she glomped the Russian, as did Alex because she could, making me tense until they were released. The Great Alexandra could probably handle herself, but the fact that she trusted Russia enough to hug him made me a bit unnerved.

_Surely_, my common sense said. _If Mari's not worried about him, neither should I be._

"But seriously Russia," Mari piped up, completely at ease. _Guess not._ "Why _do_ you wear a scarf in the summer, if you don't mind me asking?"

Russia smiled-_Geez, he's always smiling! Mari smiles a lot too, but at least she's not so creepy_-at her. "Not at all," he said. "Dees scarf was given to me by my beeg seester Ukraine when I was just a leetle boy. I cannot take eet off because eet ees part of my body."

I tried hard to not stop and stare at that one. _Part of his body? Weird…_

"Well how about the coat then?" Zara pressed on. "Oh please oh please of please?!"

I slammed my face down into my upturned palm and by the time I lifted it back up Zara was running around in Russia's coat, which was wayyyyyy to huge for her.

It took about three trip-and-faceplants before Zara figured this out, and even then her solution wasn't the best. "Alex!" she called. "Come take up the rest of this coat rom with me!" Before I could even facepalm again, a two-headed, four-legged weirdo in a huge coat went skipping down the road.

"Where's a camera when you need one?" Mari giggled.

As we walked through the city, I noticed that there was a good amount of Russian music playing. It wasn't bad, and I bobbed to the music, consciously keeping myself from actually dancing.

Safi however wasn't so unconfident in her dancing skills. The only one of us actually in dance, she seemed to glide gracefully with the beat of the music.

Russia smiled at her. "You like de dancing?" he asked. "We Russians like to dance too."

"Russian dances are cool," I said. "Like that one where they squat down and kick out their feet really fast." I gave a rather poor demonstration.

"Are you meaning the Cossack Dance?" Russia asked. "Da, I know what you are talking about. My beeg seester Ukraine taught me how to do dat."

"Omigosh can you show us?" Zara asked excitedly.

Russia contemplated this for a moment. "Hm," he said. "Dat was a long time ago, but I dink I can do it." Trying this out, Russia suddenly went down and began to kick out his legs at an incredible speed.

"Wow! Look at him go!" Alex exclaimed. "Go Russia go!"

Soon my friends and I were all cheering as we watched Russia dance. A small crowd was gathering also to watch. As the music sped up, so did Russia, who was smiling widely. Suddenly, Russia's foot slipped on some slick grass and he fell flat on his back.

My friends and I gasped, The Russians all left the scene, looking back over their shoulders and walking quickly. Were even his own people scared of him?! That of course made me scared about Russia's reaction. Failing this epically in front of a crowd, anyone would be embarrassed. This scary Russian for sure would not like that.

I was contradicted, however, by the sound of Russia's laughter. Sitting up, Russia rubbed the back of his head a bit as he laughed heartily in his higher voice, which had a very odd yet pleasing sound to it. It was even a bit contagious. So my friends and I took this cue and started laughing with him.

"That was great Russia!" Mari exclaimed.

"Are you okay?" Safi asked. "You didn't get hurt did you?"

"Nyet," Russia chuckled. "I am fine. Dat was fun, da. I haven't danced like dat in a long time."

However, after that our trip was rather uneventful.

"How about a joke?" Mari asked. "I've got one: I just hate circles, they're utterly _point_less!"

Some of us laughed, some of us groaned, I did both.

"Here, how's this?" Zara said. "What kind of whore do you pay with spaghetti?"

I wracked my brain for a bit, determined that I could get it, but I ended up coming up with nothing. "What is it?" I asked, long after everyone else had given up.

"A _pasta_tute!"

That was a good one, and surprisingly enough, we didn't have to translate the language barrier to Russia. Something about the Countries' Language allowed for all jokes to be translatable, and Russia laughed along with us.

"My turn!" exclaimed Alex. "What did the blanket say when it fell off the bed? Oh sheet!"

This also caused laughter, though Alex received a punch in the arm from Safi for technically swearing.

"Pkay, Safi!" I declared. "You have a go!"

Safi gilled. "Alright," she said. "Dear algebra, please stop asking me to go find your x. She's not coming back."

I laughed particularly hard at that one because I had absolutely _hated_ algebra in school, and the others found it funny too.

"I've got one for Zara!" Mari exclaimed almost giddily. "She just LOVES One Direction, but she's in de_Niall_!"

"HA!" my friends and I laughed really hard at that one, mostly because of Zara's reaction and her wonderful face. Only thing was though, we had to explain who Niall was to Russia.

"Lees! I chose you!" Alex decided.

"Me? I only know cheesy ones… Oh! Wait! I got it!* Now this joke was created when I was a little kid, so bear with the immaturity here." I said with a grin. "Okay, so the White Witch, Shrek, and…Hannah Montana," I decided, just needing a fictional musician. "Walk into a toilet shop-"

"Hold on," who are dese people?" Russia asked.

I held up my hand to stop my friends. "I got this. If you'll just listen a little longer, the important information will be explained." That came out a bit rude, but I didn't stop to apologize. "Okay then. So the White Witch said, 'I want an ice toilet because I like icy things,' so she got one and left. Shrek said, 'I want a wooden toilet because I like wooden things.' So he got one and left. Then Hannah Montana said, 'I want a singing toilet because I like singing things.' So she got one and left.

"The very next day, they all came back to the toilet store to return their toilets. When asked what was wrong with them, WW(DUCE!) said, 'Whenever I sit down my butt freezes to the toilet.' Shrek said, 'Whenever I sit down I get slivers on my butt.' and HM said, 'Whenever I sit down, my toilet sings, "Do you see what I see?"'"

I was so relieved when everyone laughed, knowing that that was the kind of joke that would make five year olds laugh.

"How about you Russia?" Safi asked. "Do you have any good jokes to tell?"

"Oh yes!" Russia said happily. "I like de jokes. Here is one**: An Amereecan, a Frenchman and a Russian are alone on an uneenhabeeted island. Dey catch fish for food and suddenly catch a Golden Fish, who promises to fulfill two wishes for each for her own freedom. De Amereecan said, 'A meellion dollars and to go back home!' De Frenchman said, 'Dree beautiful women and to go back home!' The Russian said, "Tsk, and we were getting along so well. Dree crates of vodka and the two fellas back!'"

"Hey that's just like our island joke!" Alex exclaimed. "So THAT'S where it comes from!"

"The ethnicities make it so much better!" Zara laughed, making the rest of us laugh because it was so true. "Got another one Russia?"

Encouraged by our laughter, Russia launched into another joke**. "A Frenchman, a German, and a Russian go on a safari and are captured by canneebals. Dey are brought to de chief, who says, 'We are going to eat you right now. But I am a ceeveelized man, I studied human rights at de Patrice Lumumba University een Moscow, so I'll grant each of you a last request.' De German asks for a mug of beer and a bratwurst. He gets eet and the canneebals eat heem. De Frenchman asks for dree girls. He has crazy sex weed dem, and den follows de German. De Russian asks: 'Heet me hard, right on my nose.' De chief is surprised, but heets heem. De Russian pulls out a Kalashnikov and shoots all the canneebals. De mortally wounded chief asks heem: 'Why deedn't you do dees before we ate de German?", de Russian proudly replies: 'Russians are not aggressors!'"

There was a long silence after that one, but it was ended when my friends and I burst out laughing. It was an EXTREMELY funny joke, however, I must admit that it did make me a bit uneasy. Somehow, Russia reminded me of that Russian from the joke. I didn't like it.

However, all Russia saw were five girls enjoying his jokes, so he smiled, completely happy. "I have something I would like to ask you girls, da?" he asked us.

Expecting another joke, my friends and I smiled in anticipation. However, we were quite contradicted.

"Weell you become one weed Mother Russia?"

The long silence was awkward, made more awkward by the smiles slowly fading from our faces as we all thought but did not say, _… Oh._

"_Whatever you do, don't agree to become one with him."_ That's what Estonia had said. So naturally, this made me extremely worried.

Safi, however, was the one that answered. "Um, we don't know what that means, but if means that you want to be friends with us, then sure. Right guys?" She turned to the rest of us.

"Right!" My friends said sincerely, _not_ out of fear. In fact, they even smiled at the suggestion. "Yeah! Let's be friends!"

I copied their actions, but didn't say anything. Hopefully no one would notice my lack of commitment to friendship with someone I was pretty sure as a psyco.

Again, silence ensued. Russia's face didn't change its expression once. He didn't even blink as he kept his same smile on his face. The longer the pause was, the creepier that smile became, and the more those violet eyes seemed to bore into my soul.

I tensed, preparing for an angry doom-bringer, fully ready to get my friends out of there if need be.

"Alright," Russia finally said anticlimactically. "I guess I can leeve weed dat." And he continued leading the way.

If Russia didn't notice my lack of an answer, my friends did. "What's wrong Lees?" Mari came over and asked me in hushed tones as we all kept walking, but Mari and I bringing up the rear. "Why are you so hesitant?"

I looked at her as if she was crazy. "Are you kidding me?" I asked more intensely, but at the same volume. "I don't trust this guy. I'm pretty sure he could turn on us at any second. That's _not_ the kind of person I'd like to be friends with."

Mari sighed. "Just give him a chance Lees." She said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I don't think Russia would do that to us. Sure, I see what you mean. He certainly does have potential to be…" She shuddered, then continued "But not to _us_. We're his friends, and I don't think he'd do anything to hurt his friends."

"But I just don't know." I sighed exasperatedly. "I don't wanna take the chance."

Mari looked like she was about to say something, then she sighed in defeat. "Just keep your mind open." She said. "Remember how it felt when people judged _us_?" Then she walked away with the rest of the group.

I couldn't help but stop in my tracks for a moment.

"Are we there yet?" Alex whined, earning a nudge from Safi.

Russia just smiled. "Da, almost." He replied.

"What exactly did you want to show us?" Zara asked, curiosity evident in her face even at night.

"I told you it is a surprise!" Russia laughed at our eagerness. "You shall see soon enough."

And see we did, for what we came to see was St. Basil's Cathedral. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is the huge building with the brightly colored, funny-shaped domes that is often used as a symbol for Russia. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, go Google Image it.

Anywho, it's an architectural and artistic masterpiece, and it was amazing.

"Makes me think of The Nutcracker." I commented.

"Dat was turned into a ballet in Russia," Russia said proudly, as he should. "Deed you know dat all de architects of dees building were blinded after it was completed so dat dey could never make anyding so beautiful again?"

Well that earned a long moment of awkward silence. Russia, however didn't seem to notice.

"I know a place around here that sells de best pirozhki!" he said a bit excitedly. I dink we can catch dem before dey close! Come! Let's hurry!" and Russia ran off with us not far behind.

"Piro-what-now?" Zara asked, but nobody could answer her.

Russia lead us into town and down a back road where a small electric sign advertised on a street corner.

"You girls be waiting here," Russia said. "I weel be right back out." And he went in.

After we'd been waiting awhile, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. From around the corner came a group of young men. By the way they swaggered (GOT DAT JESUS SWAG!-Ahem. Sorry. Bible camp. Two years ago. Long story.), I could tell they thought majorly of themselves.

When they came up to my friends and I, alarm bells started to go off inside of me. Sure, I was typically more nervous around guys and new people, but still… _Don't even go there, stupid,_ I told myself.

The guy closest to us asked us something in Russian with a cocky grin.

I looked at my friends and they looked at me; none of us knew what he was saying. "Nyet," Mari tried, first in Russian then in English. "English? Speak English?"

The guy looked back at his buddies and they chuckled a bit, which made me more uncomfortable. "American?" he asked in rough English.

"Da." Alex answered, eyeing them apprehensively. That was not good. The ever comfortable-with-boys Alex was nervous. I didn't like it. _Stop that!_ I scolded myself, wincing even as I did so. _You're psyching yourself out again. It's never true, and it doesn't help, so just stop being such a baby!_

"You liking tour?" the guy asked, as if making an offer, and stepped forward with his hand outstretched.

On instinct more than conscious movement, I stepped closer to my friends in unison with the guy's step. This did not go unnoticed by the guy.

"Nyet." Safi answered quietly, half of her body hidden behind Alex "Thank you, we nyet need tour."

"You being sure?" The guy asked, taking another step, his smile ever-present. "Give good tour. You like."

"Nyet means nyet!" Zara yelled at the guys. Even she, who feared nothing, was clearly uncomfortable. "Nyet want tour!"

"Please," the guy and his friends came closer. "Is very good tour."

That was close enough for me. Immediately I placed myself between the men and my friends. "For the last time," I said. "Nyet. I'm not going to say it again." I didn't know if these men were just overly-flirtatious or if they actually had something up their sleaves but I wasn't about to take the chance. I also didn't care that I didn't stand a chance against one guy, let alone a whole group of Russians. All I knew was that if these men tried anything, they would only get to my friends over my dead body. Even then I'd hope that God would let me come back and kick their $$es.

But the men only laughed at me. "Sorry," said the one in front as he came closer. "Nyet speak English."

Suddenly, the air grew dark and was filled with a hugely oppressing feel of impending doom. From behind the man in front, but not _from_ the man, appeared a dark purple-blue, flame-like aura, accompanied by the sound of a deep, throaty, bone-chilling, voice muttering, "Kolkolkolkol" that made my blood run cold.

The rest of the men stepped quickly away from whatever was behind their leader, shouting out Russian exclamations in fear.

The leader was not so aware, and he continued towards us until he saw that the fear in our eyes was not directed at him. Then he turned around just in time to see the most terrifying thing rise up from behind him. Scarf waving violently, faucet pipe raised high above his head, face dark in anger, there stood Russia.

The man dodged just before Russia swung his faucet pipe down with such force that it cracked the concrete upon impact. The man rolled out of the way and stood, but quick as lightning Russia's scarf shot out as if it was alive and wrapped itself around the man's neck. The scarf lifted the man off the ground, the man tearing at the scarf around his neck with his hands, and was forced to look into Russia's dark face.

"We don't like children who don't play nice." Russia said in that same low, terrifying voice.

The man stopped struggling, though he didn't seem to be choking. His face was one of pure terror and he seemed frozen in fear as he stared into the face of doom.

Russia's scarf raised the man higher, then it flung him with an incredible amount of force towards his friends, who were too busy knocking their knees together to even look at him as he tried to scramble to his feet. Russia continued speaking in that horrifying voice to the men, only this time in Russian. I didn't catch a word of what he was saying, but whatever it was was making the grown men piss themselves. As if to drive home a point, Russia half lunged at them and they all ran away screaming bloody murder.

When they were all gone, Russia looked over his shoulder at us. The aura and darkness was gone, along with the terrible feeling of doom. Russia's dark face was gone, so now we could actually see it, and he looked…sad. "You are scared." Russia stated, his voice full of sorrow. "I see eet on your faces." He turned all the way around to face us, but he kept his eyes downcast. "I am so sorry. I just wanted to be de friends, but now I have blown eet because now I have scared you." Russia looked so absolutely crushed, like a child who was about to cry. It made me want to cry. "Please," he said, his violet eyes finally meeting ours, pleading with all his soul. "Don't be afraid of Frightening Russia."

Silence ensued. Nothing moved, not even the wind, and nothing was said.

Then suddenly, my friends and I all rushed forward at once and engulfed Russia in a group hug.

"DON'T BE SAD!" I heard Safi exclaim, sounding near tears herself out of compassion.

"We'll be your friends!" Alex yelled. "We don't care if you can be scary!"

"We're not scared of you! You're a nice guy!" Zara shouted.

"Please don't be sad!" Mari exclaimed. "We _want_ to be your friends!"

My throat tightened. I couldn't take it anymore. "Russia," I said quietly, pulling away a bit so that I would be able to see his face. Unfortunately, I felt far too ashamed to meet his face. "I," I said, searching for words and trying to keep my emotions under control. "I'm sorry for doubting you." I finally got it out. "I was just afraid for my friends, but I judged you unfairly. No one should be judged that way, especially you and…I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?" I forced myself to meet Russia's face, fully expecting him to be angry like any normal person would be for being judged so unfairly. And I called myself not judgmental. _Hypocrite. _

However, what I saw instead was this: a soft, genuine smile and kind eyes so filled with joy where sadness and loneliness had once been that they were literally brimming over. "Da," Russia said, his voice sincere. "I forgeeve you."

Since this day I have learned that Russia's happiness is contagious. Seeing him so happy made me happy, so happy in fact that I couldn't keep the huge smile from spreading across my face and hugging him again. My friends joined me and soon we felt Russia wrap his arms around us. And I think, rather than putting on his ever constant smile, for a moment, Russia was really happy.

Finally, Russia released us. Looking down at us with a genuine smile, he said, "Let us go. I have one other place I want to be showing you."

"Hey! It's the Baltics!" Alex exclaimed as she ran up to, sure enough, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. They were leaning over the edge of a bridge, and when she called they jumped so badly that they almost fell in!

"Whoa! Are you guys okay?" Mari asked concernedly.

The three Baltics looked at us in mild surprise. "Y-Yes," Estonia said. "We are fine. We were just waiting to see if you were alri-I mean, waiting for you to get here."

"Well here we are!" Safi said happily. "Safe and sound."

_Nicely done Safi,_ I thought to myself. _Calming their fears without making it to obvious._ "Wow, look at the sky," I said, turning in a bit of a circle. "Wait, it was nighttime in Moscow. Why is the sky lighter here?"

"Russia," Zara said, looking around. "Where _are_ we?"

The Russian smiled as he stood up. "St. Petersburg." He answered. "At night."

"But then why is the sky white?" Safi asked.

"Eet ees because we are so far north." Russia exclaimed. "Een de summer, de sun never fully sets, so we get de white nights."

It was actually quite beautiful really. The city was lit up, but it wasn't completely dark. The sky was a soft gray-white, and the clouds outlined the colors of the sun that had never completely set.

"Wow," this is so cool!" Alex exclaimed as me and my friends, and that included Russia, joined the Baltics in gazing over the bridge. "Is it like this every night?"

Russia nodded, looking a bit nostalgic. "Nastya…" he started to say, but then with a sudden loss in his smile, he stopped.

"What was that Russia?" Mari asked. "Were you going to say something?"

Russia seemed to stare off into space for a bit, then he shook his head.

"Did you ladies enjoy your tour of Russia?" Lithuania asked quickly, although it seemed for once not to be out of fear of Russia, as his glance toward the man seemed more concerned than fearful.

"We did!" Zara said with a smile, undoubtedly happy to keep Russia from being sad by changing the subject. "We had a really good time! We saw the building with the big colorful points!"

"Way to be specific." Safi said with a giggle. She looked down at the large paper bag of pirozhki that Russia had given to her to carry once we'd left Moscow. "Would you guys like some pi…pir…pirozhki?" she asked, happy to have finally gotten it right. "It's piping hot, and there's plenty for everyone!"

So pirozhki were passed out to everyone. I'd never tried it before, but it sure was good! And after a long day of walking, it was very welcome.

"Mm!" Latvia made a noise as if he remembered something. "Russia!" he said once he'd swallowed. "I almost forgot to give you what you asked us to bring." And he handed over to Russia a box wrapped in that cardboard-paper stuff and tied with a string.

"Spasiba, Latvia," Russia said as he took the box, then he turned to us with a bit of a bashful smile. "I wanted to make you girls something," he said, keeping his eyes on the box. "But all I can make ees… Well, dees," and he handed the box to us.

Zara took the box and undid the string, having a bit of trouble with it but that was Zara and was to be expected. Then after she took off the wrapping she opened the box and inside was a small, round little doll.

"It… It looks like Mari!" Alex said with a gasp. Sure enough, the doll had Mari's same green eyes, long hair and smile on her face. The workmanship was actually quite remarkable.

"Wait," I said, noticing the seam across the Mari-doll's middle. "It's a matryoshka doll! There's more!"

So the Mari doll was opened and inside was…me! A little, round wooden doll that looked like me! And inside me was a little, round wooden Alex, a little, round wooden Safi, then a really little, round wooden Zara. Each one had been skillfully made to look like all five of us.

"Russia…" Zara said. "These are so cool! Look at me!" She took up the tiny, wooden her. "It's a mini-me!"

"Makes sense that you were the smallest one," Alex said with a chuckle.

That sent everyone, even an indignant Zara, into laughter. It seemed like the perfect way to end our day. I even noticed that while it was a little weird that Russia had made dolls of us, I finally trusted him and didn't care. That's what made me so happy.

However, our little happy fun time was cut short when I couldn't keep back a yawn, then the rest of my friends caught it and began to yawn too.

Russia smiled kindly down at us. "Come on, new friends," he said gently. "You're had a long day. I dink eet ees time to get you home."

*This is an original joke by a friend of my oldest friend. It's true! As far as I know, this joke is an original

**No changes were made to these jokes except quotes and language ticks. They're actual Russian jokes!

_**I just wanted to end on this note. Even though we won't lose touch and we WILL come visit you one day Alex, you will always be one of the Five Deadly Thorns, the Prophecy of Five, SLAMZ, and our group in real life. You truly are the girl who won't be forgotten.**_


End file.
